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This circular clarifies the goods and services tax treatment for advertising services provided by Indian companies to foreign clients. The Indian advertising company operates on a principal-to-principal basis when it provides a comprehensive solution and procures media space on its own account. In this case, the advertising company is not an intermediary under section 2(13) of the Integrated Goods and Services Tax Act, the foreign client is the recipient under section 2(93) of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, and the place of supply falls under the default provision of section 13(2) of the Integrated Goods and Services Tax Act as the location of the recipient outside India. When the advertising company merely acts as an agent that facilitates the supply between the media owner and the foreign client, it qualifies as an intermediary and the place of supply is the location of the supplier under section 13(8)(b) of the Integrated Goods and Services Tax Act.
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Circular No. 230/24/2024-GST
F. No. CBIC-20001/6/2024-GST Government of India Ministry of Finance Department of Revenue Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs GST Policy Wing
New Delhi, dated the 10th September, 2024
To,
The Principal Chief Commissioners/ Chief Commissioners/ Principal Commissioners/ Commissioners of Central Tax (All), The Principal Directors General/ Directors General (All).
Madam/Sir,
Subject: Clarification in respect of advertising services provided to foreign clients–reg.
References have been received from the trade and industry requesting for clarification regarding advertising services being provided by Indian advertising companies/agencies to foreign entities, as some of the field formations are considering the place of supply of the said services as within India, thereby denying the export benefits to such advertising companies.
1.2 In view of the difficulties being faced by the trade and industry and to ensure uniformity in the implementation of the provisions of the law across field formations, the Board, in exercise of its powers conferred by section 168 (1) of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 (hereinafter referred to as “CGST Act”), hereby clarifies the issues in succeeding paragraphs.
2.1 A foreign company or firm hires an advertising company/agency in India for advertisement of its goods or services and may enter into a comprehensive agreement with the advertising company/agency encompassing all the issues related to advertising services ranging from media planning, investment planning for the same, creating and designing content, strategizing for maximum customer reach, the identification of media owners, dealing with media owners, procuring media space, etc. for displaying/broadcasting/printing of advertisement including monitoring of the progress of the same. In such a case, the advertising agency provides a one stop solution to the client who outsources the entire activity to the agency.
2.2 In this scenario, media owners raise invoice to the advertising agency for inventory costs, which are then paid by the advertising agency. Subsequently, the advertising agency raises invoice to the foreign client for the rendered advertising services and receives the payments in foreign exchange from the foreign client. In this regard, clarification has been sought as to:
3.1 Issue 1 -Whether the advertising company can be considered as an “intermediary” between the foreign client and the media owners as per section 2(13) of IGST Act?
3.1.1 As per section 2(13) of IGST Act, read with Circular no. 159/15/2021-GST dated 20.09.2021, a broker, agent or any other person who arranges or facilitates the main supply of goods or services or both or securities and has not involved himself in the main supply on his own account is considered as intermediary.
3.1.2 In the instant scenario, it is observed that the foreign clients enter into a comprehensive agreement with advertising companies/agencies in India and outsource the entire activity of advertising services to the advertising companies/agencies. Further, these advertising companies/agencies enter into an agreement with the media owners in India for implementing the said media plan and procurement of media space for airing or releasing or printing advertisement.
3.1.3 The advertising agency, in this case, enters into two agreements:
3.1.4 Thus, the agreement, in the instant case, is in the nature of two distinct principal-to-principal supplies and no agreement of supply of services exists between the Media company and the foreign client. The advertising company is not acting as an agent but has been contracted by the client to procure and provide certain services. The advertising agency is providing the services to the client on its own account.
3.1.5 In view of above, it is clarified that in the present scenario, the advertising company is involved in the main supply of advertising services, including resale of media space, to the foreign client on principal-to-principal basis as detailed above and does not fulfil the criteria of “intermediary” under section 2(13) of the IGST Act. Thus, the same cannot be considered as “intermediary” in such a scenario and accordingly, the place of supply in the instant matter cannot be linked with the location of supplier of services in terms of section 13(8)(b) of the IGST Act.
3.2 Issue-2 Whether the representative of foreign client in India or the target audience of the advertisement in India can be considered as the “recipient” of the services being supplied by the advertising company under section 2(93) of CGST Act?
3.2.1 As per Section 2(93)(a) of the CGST Act, the “recipient” of the services means the person who is liable to pay consideration where a consideration is payable for the supply of goods or services or both.
3.2.2 In the instant scenario, the foreign client is liable to pay the consideration to advertising company for the supply of advertising and not the consumers or the target audience that watches the advertisement in India. Further, in this case, even if a representative of the said foreign client based in India, including a subsidiary or related person of the said foreign client, is interacting with the advertising company on behalf of the said foreign client, the said representative based in India cannot be considered as a recipient of the service, if the agreement is between the foreign client and the advertising company, the invoice is being issued for the said service by the advertising company to the foreign client and the payment for the said service is received by the advertising company directly from the said foreign client. Further, the target audience of the advertisements may be based in India but such target audience cannot be considered as recipient of the said advertising services being supplied by the advertising company as per the definition of the recipient under section 2(93) of CGST Act.
3.2.3 Therefore, in view of above, it is clarified that the recipient of the advertising services provided by the advertising company in such cases is the foreign client and not the Indian representative of the foreign client based in India or the target audience of the advertisements, as per section 2(93) of the CGST Act, 2017.
