Author: Ashwarya Sharma, Advocate | Co-Founder & Legal Head, RB LawCorpDate: 20/03/2026 Introduction: When Procedure Challenges Substance The Goods and Services Tax (GST) framework was designed to ensure a seamless flow of input tax credit (ITC) across the supply chain. However, as the law has evolved in its application, procedural…
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GST and Expatriate Employees – They Are Employees First
Author: Ashwarya Sharma, Advocate | Co-Founder & Legal Head, RB LawCorpDate: 17/03/2026 Introduction: When Employment Is Mistaken for Supply The taxation of cross-border employment arrangements under GST has been a recurring area of dispute, particularly in cases involving multinational corporations deploying expatriate employees in India. A key controversy has been…
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Sale of Business vs. Supply In The Course of Business: The Evolving GST Landscape
Author: Ashwarya Sharma, Advocate | Co-Founder & Legal Head, RB LawCorpDate: 11/03/2026 Introduction: When the Business Itself Is Transferred The GST framework is designed to tax supplies of goods and services made in the course or furtherance of business. However, a conceptual distinction arises when the business itself is transferred,…
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When Tax is Not Tax: Mistake of Law, Constitutional Restitution and Refund under GST
Author: Ashwarya Sharma, Advocate | Co-Founder & Legal Head, RB LawCorpDate: 07/03/2026 Introduction: Can the State Retain What It Was Never Entitled to Collect? Tax statutes operate through a structured framework of rates, valuation rules, procedural compliance and refund mechanisms. Yet, occasionally a deeper constitutional question arises: what happens when…
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Rooh Afza, Residuary Entries and the Revival of Classification Principles: A Landmark VAT Ruling by the Supreme Court
Author: Ashwarya Sharma, Advocate | Co-Founder & Legal Head, RB LawCorpDate: 05/03/2026 Introduction: When Classification Determines Tax Fate Classification disputes have long occupied a central place in indirect tax jurisprudence, often determining the fiscal fate of entire industries. The recent decision of the Supreme Court in Hamdard (Wakf) Laboratories vs…
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ISD vs Cross Charge: Karnataka HC Settles the Pre-Amendment Controversy
Author: Ashwarya Sharma, Advocate & Co-Founder, RB LawCorpDate: 02/03/2026 Introduction: When Procedure Is Mistaken for Prohibition The architecture of GST rests upon the promise of seamless credit. Yet, in practice, few issues have generated as much controversy as the mechanism for distribution of common input service credit between distinct registrations…
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Raid, Record & Reliance: Electronic Evidence, Admissions and the Consequence of Non-Retracted Statements under Customs & GST
Author: Ashwarya Sharma, Advocate & Co-Founder, RB LawCorpDate: 25/02/2026 Introduction: When Seizure Is Mistaken for Admissibility Search and seizure proceedings under fiscal statutes have increasingly become technology-driven. Laptops, accounting software backups, server extracts, pen drives and cloud data now form the backbone of many customs and GST demands. Yet a fundamental evidentiary…
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Regulation is not Commerce: Why Statutory Fees collected by Regulators cannot be taxed under GST
Author: Ashwarya Sharma, Advocate & Co-Founder, RB LawCorpDate: 13/02/2026 Introduction: When Regulation Is Mistaken for Revenue Few debates under GST have generated as much conceptual confusion as the attempt to tax statutory or regulatory fees collected by bodies discharging sovereign functions. At the heart of this controversy lies a foundational constitutional question:…
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Tax Sovereignty in an Unsettled World: A GST Practitioner’s Reading of Tiger Global and the Future of Fiscal Autonomy
Author: Ashwarya Sharma, Advocate & Co-Founder, RB LawCorpDate: 10/02/2026 1. Introduction The concept of tax sovereignty has re-emerged as a defining theme in contemporary fiscal discourse. In an era shaped by cross-border capital flows, multilateral tax frameworks, and increasing economic interdependence, the power to design and enforce tax policy has assumed renewed…
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Substance Over Semantics: True Contours of “Event Management Service” and Its GST Implications
Author: Ashwarya Sharma, Advocate & Co-Founder, RB LawCorpDate: 03/02/2026 1. Introduction The expansion of indirect tax jurisprudence in India has often witnessed interpretative overreach by tax authorities, particularly in service classification disputes where the economic importance of an activity is sought to be equated with taxability. In a significant and…