There has been a lot of confusion in treatment of discounts in invoice and questions with respect to which amount should be chargeable to GST. Though the law is pretty clear about it.
GST treats all the discounts such as trade discounts, cash discounts, volume/turnover discounts, etc. Instead, the treatment varies with the timing of discount being given, so we classify the treatment of discounts under the following two categories:
1. Discount given before or at the time of supply, and
2. Discount given after the supply has been effected.
Now, let’s discuss each one of the above with practical aspects
1.Discount given before or at the time of supply
The treatment is simple, the discounts given before or at the time of supply are simply deducted from the invoice value i.e. GST would be charges on discounted value
Suppose, the sale value is Rs.1000 and you provide a discount of 10%. So, while issuing the tax invoice, you would specify the price of the goods or services as Rs.1000 and deduct discount of Rs.100 showing it in the invoice, which makes the taxable value to be Rs.900. Now, GST would be applied on Rs.900 i.e. the discounted value. Suppose the rate of GST is 12%, so the amount of GST would be 900 x 12% = Rs.108
2. Discount given after the supply has been effected
These discounts are generally of the nature of periodical turnover/volume discounts or incentives, allowed for buying a particular value of goods/services during a period.
Such discounts will be allowed as deduction from the value of supply only if the following conditions are satisfied:
1. There must be written contract between the supplier and the buyer, prior to making the supply, which should mention the amount of discount to be given.
2. Such discount must be able to be mapped to the relevant invoices against which such discount is being given.
3. Buyer must have reversed the Input Tax Credit pertaining to the discount he is now receiving.
Let’s understand this with the example we used earlier, if the discount of Rs.100 is being allowed after the sale has been effected, on satisfying the conditions as mentioned above, the seller can raise a credit note for the amount of discount along with the GST thereon, and the buyer will raise a corresponding debit note. This way, the supplier’s value of the supplies for the month will be reduced by Rs.100 for that month and consequentially he will not be paying GST on the discount.
However, we should check if the conditions are met:
1. There is an agreement in existence prior to making the sale
2. Discount can be mapped to invoices to which it pertains
3. Buyer has reversed the ITC with respect to this Rs.100, in case he has claimed ITC on the whole amount of Rs.1000
(The author is a CA in practice at Delhi and also the owner of http://moneyboat.in/ and can be contacted at: E-mail: [email protected], Mobile: +91-9811741451)
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What is the hsn code for discounts post sales
Dear Sir,
My dealer is distributor of Nikon, Fujifilm etc. He has received discount as turnover discount which has been given by the supplier on completing the achievement of purchase done by the purchaser for example – the company says that in assessment year you will purchase goods over 50 lakh 3% extra discount will be given to you on purchase. My firm (purchasing party) had completed the turnover of purchase over 50 lakh and the selling dealer issued him 3% discount by issuing credit note. This discount has been received by the purchasing party after purchase and completing the target of purchase. Now purchasing dealer has deducted the discount figure from purchase this way he is claiming ITC on full purchase but considering the cost of purchase amount after deducting discount he is fixing the sale price. He has still profit The example is as under :
Purchase price Rs. 100 Sale Price Rs. 99
Less: Discount Rs. 3
97
No GST has been taken back or reverse in the credit note discount issued by the selling dealer. The purchasing dealer is not reversing the ITC on discount received by the credit note of issued by the selling dealer.
Now the question is whether the GST department is authorise to do RITC on the discount received by the purchasing dealer. The action of the department is correct or not please reply. The turnover discount in fact is the extra profit of the purchasing dealer.
This is not that easy as you have provided in our article. You will have to pass the test of Doctrine of Unjust enrichment i.e. you have not passed the incidence of tax to any other person. Since you have recovered GST on full value of Rs. 1000/- it is assumed that you have passed the incidence of tax onto your recipient. In such a case you will not get the refund of GST by way of reduction in the output liability. The refund so determined must go the the ultimate consumer who have paid the GST. If the consumers are not identifiable then the Govt. also can’t keep this refund/reduction but the same will have to be credited to the Consumer Welfare Fund.
Sir,
The buyer got trade discount/incentive after supply. There is no agreement between them. The supplier issued credit note to the buyer without showing GST. In this situation, the supplier cannot deduct discount from the value of supply. My question is that, in the case of buyer, whether such discounts received from supplier taxable ?.. if so, where can I shown in GSTR ?, what is the rate ?