The Goods and Service Tax (GST) is a comprehensive and destination-based indirect tax levied on the supply of goods and services. If you are applying for GST registration for your business, you need to submit certain documents along with your application. Go through this article to know about the list of documents required for GST registration.

What are the documents required for GST registration?

Please keep the following documents needed for GST registration process-

• PAN card of the applicant
• Proof of business address (anyone from rent/lease agreement, electricity bill, owner NOC and so on)
• Proof of constitution of business (anyone from partnership deed, Memorandum of Association (MOA), certificate of incorporation, registration certificate, Articles of Association (AOA), Society by-laws, and so on)
• Identity and address proof for each of the directors/promoters with photographs
• Authorisation details (anyone from letter of authorisation, copy of the resolution passed by the managing committee/Board of Directors specifying the authorised signatory
• Bank details (First page of bank passbook, a canceled cheque of the bank account showing the name of the account holder, bank statement)

Make sure to submit self-attested documents for GST registration. These GST registration documents will be verified by the authority for their validity. Therefore, you should be careful while submitting documents required for GST, if you want to avoid unnecessary delays.

Also read: How to change GST registration details of a business?

What is GST? What is the GST registration?

GST is a multi-stage tax, charged at every point of sale. It has replaced many indirect taxes such as the service tax, Value Added Tax (VAT), central sales tax, excise duty, additional customs duty, and so on. To introduce GST as a comprehensive tax, the Government passed the Goods & Services Act which came into effect from 1st July 2017. This day is celebrated as ‘GST Day’ every year.

Initially, the GST Act stated that businesses exceeding an annual turnover of Rs 20 lakhs needed to register themselves as a taxable entity. But, as decided in the 32nd GST Council Meeting in January 2019, states were given options to either opt for new limits or to continue with the previous ones. This new limit came into effect from 1st April 2019 onwards. Many states opted to raise this limit to Rs 40 lakhs for the sale of goods. However, there was no change in the threshold limits for service providers.

This process of registering a business entity in the GST regime is GST registration. It can be done easily on the GST registration portal online. The Government has not described any registration fees as such. But, you may need to bear a professional fee if you hire the services of a consultant or CA for GST registration.

For certain businesses, it is a criminal offense to operate without doing GST registration. Therefore, you must apply for GST registration if you have not done so far. You need to submit certain documents required for GST registration of individual entities, along with your application.

Now that you are aware of the GST registration documents list, let’s discuss certain benefits of GST registration.

Also read:Is it necessary to register a company to get a GSTIN number?

What are the benefits of GST registration?

• GST has removed the cascading effect of taxes and eliminated the ‘tax on tax’. This has reduced the cost of production considerably for businesses.
• GST registration increases the revenue generation prospects for the Government.
• The GST regime has been able to regulate the unorganised business sector. A GST registration makes a business legally recognised as a supplier of services or goods
• GST registration makes a business legally authorised to collect tax from its purchasers or recipients and to pass on the credit against the taxes paid to them.
• GST helps a business to consolidate its warehousing facilities and to improve the efficiency of logistics, at reduced costs.
• Small businesses can utilize the composition scheme provided by the GST regime to lower taxes. Thereby, they can reduce their taxation and compliance burden significantly.
• GST has been a boon to the MSMEs. Because of the simplified return filing system in the GST regime, MSMEs are less dependent now on tax professionals as compared to the previous tax regime.

Who should register for GST?

The following entities should mandatorily do GST registration-

• Persons/businesses making the inter-state supply of goods & services
• Individuals/businesses registered under tax services of the previous regime (VAT, Excise, Service Tax, etc.) before GST came into effect
• All eCommerce aggregators
• Therefore, a person/business that supplies through an eCommerce aggregator
• Non-Resident taxable person/Casual taxable person
• Agents of a supplier & Input service distributor
• A person/business that supplies online information, database access and/or retrieval services from outside the country to a person/business in India (other than a registered taxable entity)
• Any other person/business as notified by the Central/State Govt. , as and when recommended by the  GST Council

Also read: How to register for GST online?

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