Home Case Index All Cases Service Tax Service Tax + AT Service Tax - 2017 (10) TMI AT This
Forgot password New User/ Regiser ⇒ Register to get Live Demo
2017 (10) TMI 662 - AT - Service TaxPenalty u/s 78 - non-payment of service tax - whether such non-payment of service tax by the appellant was on account any one of the ingredients mentioned in the said Section 78? - Held that: - there is a clear mandate of law provided under Section 78 of the Finance Act, 1994 that any person, who has not paid or short-paid the tax on account of any fraud; collusion; willful mis-statement; or suppression of facts or has evaded any tax provisions with an intent to evade payment of duty would be liable to equal amount of penalty. The appellant was registered and was paying service tax but for the period involved in the present appeal. The said non-payment was detected by the department on investigations made against them. It cannot be held that such non-payment of service tax or even non-disclosure of the value of the same in the return was on account of the non-receipt of compensation from the clients as they were collecting service tax from their customers, Even otherwise, the payment of service tax is the legal obligation of the service provider, irrespective of the fact of receipt of value of the service from service recipient All these factors lead to an inevitable conclusion that there was malafide on the part of the appellant to suppress the value of the services and not to pay service tax on the same - penalty u/s 78 upheld. Appeal dismissed - decided against appellant.
|