Services provided by way of legal services by:

  • a partnership firm of advocates or an individual as an advocate other than a senior advocate to:
    • an advocate or partnership firm of advocates providing legal services.
    • any person other than a business entity.
    • a business entity with an aggregate turnover up to twenty lakh rupees (ten lakh rupees in the case of special category states) in the preceding financial year.are exempted from the payment of tax as per Entry 45 of Notification No. 12/2017(Central Tax Rate) (hence forth called CTR)
  • a senior advocate to:
    • any person other than a business entity.
    • a business entity with an aggregate turnover up to twenty lakh rupees (ten lakh rupees in the case of special category states) in the preceding financial year.are exempted from the payment of tax as per Entry 45 of Notification No. 12/2017 (CTR)

 

  • An individual advocate including a senior advocate, directly or indirectly, to
    • Any business entity located in taxable territory having aggregate turnover exceeding twenty lakh rupees (ten lakh rupees in the case of special category states) in the preceding financial year.Shall be liable for the payment of tax under Reverse Charge as per Notification No. 13/2017 (CTR)

 

  • A Senior advocate to:
    • an advocate or partnership firm of advocates providing legal services.Shall be liable for the payment of tax under Reverse Charge as per Notification No. 13/2017 (CTR), thus an advocate or partnership firm of advocates receiving Legal services from a Senior advocate shall be required to obtain Registration as per Section 24.

Legal Services, as per Corrigendum to Notification No. 13/2017 (CTR), means any service provided in relation to advice, consultancy or assistance in any branch of law, in any manner and includes representational services before any court, tribunal or authority.
 
Further Notification No. 5/2017 (Central Tax) exempts the category of persons who are only engaged in making supplies of services, the total tax on which is liable to be paid on reverse charge basis by the recipient of such services from obtaining Registration. Thus, an advocate providing Services, the total tax on which is to be paid by Recipient under RCM is exempted from obtaining Registration. However, where advocate engages himself in any other services in addition to Reverse Charge Services, then registration requirement as per threshold shall exist. Where advocate receives Supplies liable to tax under Reverse Charge then the advocate shall be mandatorily required to obtain registration under Section 24.
Business Entity is not defined somewhere but in common parlance it means organizations established as a separate existence for the purpose of taxes.
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