Senior advocates are now temporarily outside the service tax net, as the Delhi high court today stayed the imposition of this tax on them, reported Mint . Justices S Muralidhar and RK Gauba ordered the stay on the Delhi High Court Bar Association’s (DHCBA) plea that charging senior advocates on the ...

The Union Budget has withdrawn the service tax exemption of senior advocates providing services to other advocates or law firms, effectively increasing the cost of instructing senior counsel by 14 per cent.

Advaita Legal won relief from service tax for lottery distributors, in Future Gaming’s Sikkim high court writ challenging the imposition of service tax on them. Advaita senior attorney AR Madhav Rao and associates Rajat Mittal and Nandita Narayan acted for Future Gaming which had challenged Finance ...

Mumbai lawyer Abhishek Nakashe lodged a police complaint under Section 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace) against local restaurant Secret Spice, after the restaurant entered a heated argument with Nakashe over an allegedly illegally levied service charge in Nakashe’s foo...

Mumbai advocate PC Joshi argued before the Bombay high court that advocates should be exempted from service tax because the tax is levied on “value addition which is made as a result of rendition of service” and “representation [of litigant clients] before a court does not result in any value additi...

Economic Laws Practice (ELP) won for Bharti Airtel, PDS Legal for Ernst & Young (E&Y), Lakshmikumaran & Sridharan (LKS) for Ultratech Concrete, and Global Legal Associates for ITC Welcome Group in the Delhi high court on Tuesday against the Service Tax Department.

”) The Delhi High Court Bar Association (DHCBA) published a notice on Saturday that appears to have incorrectly explained the service tax (ST) rules on restaurant bills, urging its members, families, friends and clients to refuse to pay the correct amounts.

In today’s edition of Mint: The finance ministry’s latest concession on service tax imposed on lawyers that was notified in June has been welcomed by some; others continue to say it wasn’t enough and many remained unaware of the current law and how, or if at all, they had to pay this tax.

Breaking: Fees earned by lawyers in courts or tribunals will not be subject to service tax under the Union Budget, which expanded the overall scope of service tax to everything except for a few exceptions.

Naik Naik & Co-led Retailers Association of India (RAI) has lost the immovable property rentals’ service tax matter in the Bombay High Court, which upheld the union government’s power to enact laws to impose service tax on such rentals as constitutionally valid.

”) The Andhra Pradesh High Court has become the third high court after the Delhi and Gauhati High Courts to stay the imposition of service tax on lawyers practicing in courts made applicable during this year’s budget under the Finance Act 2011.

Breaking Exclusive: The Delhi High Court has stayed the imposition of service tax on individual advocates under the Finance Act 2011, according to two lawyers with knowledge of the case.

The Finance Ministry has reversed its earlier budget proposal that would make service tax payable by professionals such as lawyers when bills are issued rather than when they are paid, after protests and representations from lawyers that this would be unduly onerous.

Advocates at courts throughout India are today observing a protest day, wearing black ribbons in opposition to the Legal Services Bill, coinciding with a Delhi High Court Bar Association strike against the service tax.

The Government is reportedly re-examining the 2011 Finance Bill’s proposal to charge service tax on an accruals basis, which would force law firms to pay service tax as soon as they bill a client rather than when the cash is actually received.

Either the Indian Government is short of cash, is in full GST mode or it just does not like lawyers very much.

Exclusive: Law firms’ litigation associates could find themselves liable to have to charge service tax to their law firms and account for it to the Revenue under the Budget’s new service tax rules that apply to individuals representing businesses in courts or tribunals.

Exclusive: Society of Indian Law Firms (SILF) chairman Lalit Bhasin has condemned the expanded service tax rules on law firms, saying that SILF and other law firms would file a new writ petition against the changes while the existing writ petition remained pending in the Bombay High Court.

Exclusive: Society of Indian Law Firms (SILF) chairman Lalit Bhasin has condemned the expanded service tax rules on law firms, saying that SILF and other law firms would file a new writ petition against the changes while the existing writ petition remained pending in the Bombay High Court.

Breaking: The Union Budget has widened contentious law firm service tax to apply to court-based, tribunal and arbitration advice by lawyers and has been further expanded to include advice by law firms to individuals too.