Tax implementation in Restaurants on your bills

It was Friday evening; I was sitting in restaurant with family and friends to celebrate my birthday. We had nice four course dinner along with Beverages. Like any intelligent person I ran through a glimpse of the pricing as well.

So roughly I estimated the bill to be around 4000 bucks and I was looking forward for the meal. However, when the bill came, little did I knew that I was not intelligent enough.. The numbers did not matched, also the amount was more than 5000 bucks, as service tax, VAT and service charge were added to raise the bill by 20 to 25% extra in my misery. A part of me though felt cheated but can’t help had to pay the bill.

I was little annoyed but had to pay.

This is very general to all of us, don’t you think? So I thought to find out the basis of these extra charges been levied on my bill.

 Let me explain it here, the rationale behind all this:

There are 3 things majorly added over and above the item cost. These are:

1)     Service Charge

2)      Service Tax

3)     VAT

Let’s elaborate them one by one.

Service Charge:

This is charged by the restaurant for the services rendered to you like Serving the food etc . This money goes to the restaurant. The establishments are free to charge any amount as service charges as there are no guidelines provided by the tax authority. The charge varies from 5 percent to 10 percent. We can say that these charges are in lieu of tips. So, in case if such charges are levied don’t pay tips as the amount is divided among the staff.

Service Tax:

When you are eating in a restaurant, you are not only having food but also availing services of sitting arrangement, air condition etc which is liable for taxes. Service tax is the tax levied by the Government on the services rendered by restaurants. Service tax is same in all states. It is 12.36 percent (and now proposed as 14% from coming financial year) on the 40 percent of the bill. The bill includes your food and drink and the service charge. The restaurant must be air-conditioned for the service tax. So, don’t get confused with terms like service charge and service tax. Also, please note Service tax is not levied on service charge. As it is difficult to generalize the Service Tax separately on each item and not to be mixed it with VAT, It is considered that 40% of food bill is chargeable for Service Tax.

Moreover, Service tax can be charged only in case if restaurant is air conditioned as per govt. norms.

VAT:

 VAT (value added tax) is state specific and charged on sale of goods. The rates can be as low as 5 percent and as high as 20 percent depending upon the states. Moreover, VAT for food items and drink are different. Many restaurants might club food items and drink and charge a flat rate on the total bill. In such cases, it is good to ask for separate bills for food and drinks. This should clearly show the different VAT for both the items.

For example, your total bill amount is Rs. 2,000. Then service charge at the rate of 10% on total food bill will be Rs. 200. Total bill amount will be Rs. 2,200.

VAT will be calculated as; let’s say 12.5% of Rs. 2,200 which is equal to Rs. 275.

So, bill amount is now; Rs 2,475. Now, adding service tax, which is charged at the rate of 12.36% on 40% of food bill (excluding VAT), will be Rs. 108.76. Thus, total amount will be Rs 2,583.76; which can be rounded off to Rs. 2,584.

Another doubt whether service tax is levied on goods sold on MRP basis as part of bill/invoice?

The reply is if the goods sold on MRP basis (fixed under legal metrology Act) they have to be excluded from the total bill to derive at the value of service portion.

One more doubt, services provided in relation to serving of food or beverage by a canteen in factory covered under factories act 1948 having the facility of air conditioned or central air heating?

The clarification is No service tax on serving of food by canteen in factory on both the air conditioned canteen as well as non air conditioned canteen.

So, next time while dining do keep an eye out for inflated bills.

Please feel free to contact Munim Team for any further clarification/help.

Like us on Munim Facebook

Munim Team

Your Personal Munim

www.munim.in

Reach us @ +91 8800681678 | contact.munim@gmail.com | contact@munim.in

Like us on Facebook @ Munim

Follow our blog @ Munim Blog 

Rest Assured, We feel Your Concern !!

Trade Mark Registration in India

Have you ever wondered why there are so many of Dilli Chat walah in your locality?

Have you ever etched your head who is the original Kaka Kulfi wala or Jain Shikanji Wala?

Have you ever checked which Pahwa Confectioners was founded first?

Why there are so many of shops or specialists with the same name / brand in your locality, its because they did not realized the potential of their brand in the initial phase of their business and by the time they realized, it was too late and there were more than 3/4 competitors in the market with the same brand/name. 

And, now they are forced to showcase word "original" prescribed their brand or so.

Ever realized that these locally famous brands could be National Brands? So where did they went wrong?

It was just one step that they had not taken, The Trade Mark Registration.

Now you can imagine what dent it can make if you don't register your brand/trade mark within time.

Here is summarized procedure to register trade mark in India: 

Step 1: Be sure that your brand name is just not mundane

You get the point, don’t you? Come up with a whacky and quirky brand name, because all the generic ones are any which way taken. Before zeroing in on one name, you might want to do a quick search to make sure that no one else is already using the name. And your best bet would be to use invented or coined words, in a combination with generic words.

Step 2: Trademark application

Now that your name is finalized upon, fill in the trademark application i.e. Form- TM 1 or TM 51 (or other which ever is applicable). The application costs INR 4000 per class registraion.

Along with the application, you will need to submit a couple of supporting documents:

1. A Business registration concern: Depending on what type of a registered business you have, say sole proprietorship, etc. you will need to submit an identity proof of the directors of the company and an address proof.
2. An image of your brand logo
3. If applicable, proof of claim of the proposed mark being used before in another country.

There are 2 ways to file the registration – manual filing or e-filling.

In case of manual filing, you will need to personally walk down and submit the application for registration to any one of the offices of the Registrar of Trade Marks located in Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai and Ahmedabad. After which you receive the acknowledgement of the application and the receipt, usually within 15-20 days of the filing.

But in e-filing system, the acknowledgement of the application is issued immediately.

And after you receive the acknowledgement, you can start using the (TM) symbol next to the brand name!

Step 3: Registration Application at Registrar's end

After receiving the application, the Registrar checks whether the brand name complies with the law and does not conflict or dispute with other existing registered or pending brands. 

Step 5: Indian Trade Mark Journals

After examination, the logo or brand name is published in the Indian Trade Mark Journal. If no one raises an opposition within 3 months i.e. 90 days or in some cases 120 days, from the date of publication, the brand name proceeds to acceptance.

Step 6:Trademark registration certificate

If no one raises any opposition, within the stipulated 90 days period, the Registrar accepts the trademark application! Woohoo! And issues a Certificate of Registration under the seal of Trademark Registry.

You may now be allowed to use the registered trademark symbol (®) next to your brand name, once the certificate has been issued.

The whole process of registration of a brand name usually takes anything between 15-18 months. The trademark once accepted, is valid for a period of 10 years from the date of issuance of the Certificate of Registration. After the end of 10 years, the trademark will need to be renewed.

Although the process of registering a trademark is lengthy and a little heavy on the pocket, it is definitely worth the investment of legally protecting your brand.

Please feel free to contact Munim Team for any further clarification/help in Trade Mark Registration.

Please like us on Munim Facebook

Munim Team

Your Personal Munim

www.munim.in

Reach us @ +91 8800681678 | contact.munim@gmail.com | contact@munim.in

Like us on Facebook @ Munim

Follow our blog @ Munim Blog 

Rest Assured, We feel Your Concern !!

‘Lizard Squad’ hacking attempt at Munim.in

‘Lizard Squad’ hacking attempt at Munim.in

 

Off lately, our website has been malfunctioning and had turned pretty slow. We had tried multiple levels of indexing but without any improvement until we received a mail from Ministry of Communications and Information Technology that "www.munim.in“  is compromised and hosting malicious code. On further probing and investigation we came to know that there has been a hacking attempt by Chinese hackers ‘Lizard Squad’.

Ministry of Communications and Information Technology has taken this issue with great gravity and helped us in retrieving/modifying our website and further we have protected our website with high level security standards approved by Web Application Security Consortium (WASC). We would like to thank you all for all your patience with our website and Ministry for timely information and help.

Letter from Ministry of Communications and Information Technology

Ref No: CERTIn-211221796

_________________________

Dear Sir/Madam,

We have received reports that the website "www.munim.in“  is compromised

and hosting malicious java_script/IFRAME  snippets. This causes visitors of
your websites unknowingly redirected to malicious
websites   which downloads malicious Trojan into their computers.
Details of the  affected pages/page:


  ht*p://munim[d0t]in/
  ht*p://www[d0t]munim[d0t]in/
  ht*p://www[d0t]munim[d0t]in/index[d0t]html
  ht*p://www[d0t]munim[d0t]in/index[d0t]html
  ht*p://www[d0t]munim[d0t]in/index[d0t]html
  ht*p://www[d0t]munim[d0t]in/index[d0t]html

Note: (added * and [d0t] to prevent the link from working)
You are requested to take following immediate actions:

• Search your Web pages (html, asp jsp, js etc) for obfuscated malicious
content.JavaScript/VBScript/IFRAME code injected by attackers. These links
are embedded in the source code of the Web page associated to an
IFRAME/script tag.
•       Remove the below malicious contents (java scripts/vbscripts/IFRAMES)
that are injected by the attackers in all the above listed web-page.
• Search for a hidden folder .sys and delete the same, if found.
• Site administrators are advised to Check htaccess, php_includes, and
other configuration settings, as well as ensuring directory permissions are
set appropriately.
• Users may consider using a firefox addon "NoScript" which pre-emptively
blocks malicious scripts and allows JavaScript, Java and other potentially
dangerous content only from the user trusted sites.
• Scan the system with Anti-virus/Anti-spyware.
• Change FTP credentials (if any) for the administrators to upload
content into your website and secure the same.
• Review the security of your Web Server and website for application and
Operating System vulnerabilities and apply appropriate patches/updates.

• Implement information security best practices such as “Use Signed
Scripting”.
• It is recommended to avoid internet browsing and remove all file shares
on the Web Server.
• Refer to the given below link for Google webmaster's help for the
hacked site.
ht*tp://www[d0t]google[d0t]com/webmasters/hacked/
- --
Thanks and Regards,

CERT-In

Incident Response Help Desk
e-mail : incident@cert-in.org.in
Phone : 1800-11-4949
FAX : 1800-11-6969
Web : http://www.cert-in.org.in
PGP Fingerprint : 4871 0429 EB42 0423 4E6A FAD6 B2D5 5C16 9E34 6D2C
PGP Key information:
http://www.cert-in.org.in/contact.htm

Postal address:
Indian Computer Emergency Response Team
Department of Information Technology
Ministry of Communications and Information Technology
Government of India
Electronics Niketan
6, C.G.O. Complex
New Delhi-110 003

Individual Tax Planning according to Budget 2015-16

 

Budget 2015-16, though majorly focused on corporate growth, foreign investments, infrastructural development and overall GDP growth, has some silver lining for individual tax payers also. 

It has not sidelined the active contributor (individual) in the income tax and has proposed tax saving through indirect methods. Budget 2015-16 has not touched the tax slabs, however, it has increased the deduction limits, thus more saving in future. Overall benefit of Rs 6.94 lacs may be availed, if tax is planned effectively which is Rs 74,600 higher than that was in Budget 2014-15.

Here, Munim Team has prepared a glimpse of tax saving structure:

Basic Exeption	Rs 2,50,000
Deductions under 80C	Rs. 1,50,000
Deductions under 80CCD (for contribution to New Pension Scheme)	Rs. 50,000
*Interest on house property loan	Rs. 2,00,000
Exemption with Transportation allowance of Rs. 1,600 per month	Rs. 19,200
Health insurance premium under Section 80D	Rs. 25,000
Total	Rs. 6,94,200

   







 * The tax has been structured keeping home loan in consideration, for people having no home loan the “interest on house property loan” may be dropped.

Following are the increase in deduction limits:

1. Limit of deduction of health insurance premium increased from Rs. 15,000 to Rs. 25,000. For senior citizens limit increased from Rs 20,000 to Rs 30,000.
2.  Additional deduction of Rs 50,000 for contribution to the new pension scheme u/s 80CCD.
3.  Monthly transport allowance exemption doubled to Rs 1,600, thus marking an annual rebate to Rs 19,200.

 
For more details on tax planning, please feel free to contact Munim Team

Please like us on Munim Facebook

Munim Team

Your Personal Munim

www.munim.in

Reach us @ +91 8800681678 | contact.munim@gmail.com | contact@munim.in

Like us on Facebook @ Munim

Follow our blog @ Munim Blog 

Rest Assured, We feel Your Concern !!