Bombay High Court gives no relief to builders on VAT

1) Builders Must Pay VAT by 31st October 2012 - Tomorrow!:

The Bombay High Court today dismissed a bunch of petitions filed by builders against two circulars of the Maharashtra Sales Tax department which levied VAT (Value Added Tax) on all property transactions between June 20, 2006 and March 31, 2010.

The division bench of Justices D Y Chandrachud and R G Ketkar upheld the circulars issued on August 6 and September 26 which said that developers/ builders must register themselves with the Department and pay VAT under the Maharashtra Value Added Tax Rules.
PTI

(As per the circulars, developers were supposed to register themselves by September 15 and pay tax arrears by October 31)

2) Bombay High Court upholds VAT circular on flat purchase

The burden of VAT dues lies squarely on builders:

The Bombay High Court has upheld a tax circular that levied VAT on houses purchased after 2006, reports Ashmit Kumar on CNBC-TV18.

It is a big setback today for the Mumbai-based realtors. The Bombay High Court has upheld a tax circular that seeks to impose a 5% VAT on flats that were purchased which in turn were constructed between 2006 and 2010.

The levy of this VAT was in fact first contested in the Bombay High Court and that tussle went on in the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court ruled in favour of the tax department and set a deadline of October 31 for the realtors to clear tax dues. Importantly, the Bombay High Court observed that it was not in a position to consider the extension of the deadline as it had been very clearly stipulated by the Supreme Court.

However, it did provide some relief to the realtors; it clearly stated that this ruling will not come in the way of realtors approaching the state government for addressing this matter.

The bigger question is who bears the brunt, whether it’s the tax payers, whether it’s the buyers of the flat or whether it’s the realtors; that still looms large.

The tax department has made its position very clear, the burden of this payment, the burden of the tax dues lies squarely on the realtors. The realtors on their part have argued that they have very clear provisions which state that additional costs will have to be borne by the buyers. In the near term with the deadline fast approaching it does appear that this new development is likely to put pressure on their books.

3) Builders’ body plea challenging value-added tax levy dismissed:

The builders will have to pay the VAT for under-construction properties that were sold between 2006 to 2010 period. A division bench comprising Justice D. Y. Chandrachud and Justice R. G. Ketkar dismissed the petition filed by MCHI-Credai describing it as ‘without merit’. The court also added that deadline of payment of VAT stands on October 31. Click to Read More

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