GST on RWA

GST is payable only if the aggregate turnover including exempt supplies like property tax and water tax and also third-party goods/ services exempt up to Rs 7500 per month per member exceed Rs 20 Lakhs annually. Even in cases where the monthly receipts are below Rs 7,500 but the annual turnover of the society crosses Rs 20 Lakhs, in such cases GST is payable. Tax is payable at @18% on the entire taxable proceeds. For example, in cases where monthly proceeds exceed Rs 8000, GST is payable on the entire 8000 Rs and not just on 500 Rs as clarified by CBI&C circular dated 22-7-2019. Corpus, contribution to repair fund, and sinking fund collections are viewed as advance for future contingencies which may lead to the rendering of services and hence may be argued as taxable. There are few contrary advance rulings where the view taken is that these do not lead to a supply of services and hence should not be taxable. Many societies contribute heavily to repair funds to be future ready and as such, there is no service involved by way of value creation/addition. Also if we compare this entry on the monthly maintenance bill with others, all the others that are taxable also have associated input tax credit opportunity. Since this is merely a deposit, taxing this would mean taxing non-profit making societies @18 % without any input tax credit which seems unfair. Since the corpus and sinking fund contributions are mandatory in nature, taxing these would mean it is mandatory to pay 18% tax on the members own funds. It would still be acceptable if the interest earned by society from the repair and sinking fund deposit are charged GST instead of the principal.