Service Tax Return Preparers Likely To File For Cos As Well

The self-employed people who will be trained to become service tax return preparers are likely to be permitted to file returns for companies as well as individual service providers. They are also likely to be paid a fixed sum per return for each new assessee, as against the income-tax return preparers, who get a variable percentage of the tax paid. The new service tax return preparer scheme was declared in Budget 2008-09 to assist service-tax payers and bring in new assessees under the tax net. The Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) formed a committee to prepare the broad contours of the scheme. The board likely to give preference to income-tax return preparers as they have been selected via a proper screening process and have some experience. The income-tax department had trained 3,700 tax return preparers in 2007.