Search Engine giant, Google has started mentioning the exact value of the tax in its play store bills, and invoices post the implementation of the GST, from 1st July 2017. Earlier google did not include the tax amount in its invoices, and the tax column always used to show ₹ 0. Google was paying taxes on behalf of its customers and was not charging its customers, i.e., the company was absorbing the taxes on behalf of its clients.
The company now confirmed that from now on the developers from India would themselves have to pay the taxes though it would continue to pay the taxes for developers outside India. Earlier, 15% of the service tax was being charged and was paid by google for all its developers. Now, this tax has increased from 15% to 18% under the goods and service tax.
If one is a developer with a merchant account addresses in India, then he/she would be responsible for paying the GST on the sale of the mobile applications and various games in India. While the developers who are working from abroad, Google would be responsible for them to remit GST to Indian Tax Authorities.
Google has also requested its developers to register and share their GSTIN as per the new GST law with their sole responsibility of providing accurate information regarding GSTIN and the business address.
It has been advised that the price of the apps and the games in the google play store must include all the taxes (including GST). Google would be passing the total price to the developer after deducting the transaction fee.
