As a business owner, you must have already registered your business with the department of Goods and Services Tax (GST). If you haven’t yet, you can do so by visiting the GST portal https://www.gst.gov.in. You can refer to our step-by-step guide on how to register your business for GST.
It’s very important that you register your business for GST. The Indian government has made the whole process online, which makes it easier to register your business.
Depending on the type of business and annual turnover of your business, you need to select under which category you have to register. Following are the three types:
- Normal: This is for businesses that have an annual turnover of more than Rs 40 lakh from the sales of goods. If a business provides services and has an annual turnover of Rs 10 lakh, it can also register under this.
- Casual: This is for seasonal businesses.
- Composition: This is for businesses that have an annual turnover of up to Rs 1.5 crore.
- Non-resident: If the business owner is not an Indian resident but sells goods and services in India, he can register the business under this category.
Once you have registered the business for GST, the next step is to verify the GSTIN (GST Identification Number).
Importance of verifying GST number
GST number, which is also known as GSTIN (GST Identification Number) is a public information, which every business owner is required to display on their business letterheads, invoices, and any other business related documents.
The government has mandated this so that anyone can check if the business is legit or not. It is specifically useful when a business is transacting with another business for goods or services and wants to ensure it’s not dealing with a fraud company.
Also read: What is GST? Goods And Services Tax Explained
Since every business, whether it’s a B2B or B2C has to transact with other businesses, it’s useful to understand how one can verify GSTIN of other businesses. Alternatively, you should also check your business’ GSTIN and see if all the details are correct.
How to verify GST number
Once you have registered the business for GST, the next step is to verify the GSTIN, which can be done online with just a few clicks.
Simply go to this link and enter your 15-digit GSTIN, or the GST number of the business you want to transact with to check if they are registered. After entering the GSTIN, you will have to enter the numbers shown in the image just below it. The next step is to just click on the enter button.
Once you have done that, the website will show all the details of the business, including the legal name of the business, registration date, type of business, GST number status, the type of taxpayer the business is, office address, and the goods and services it provides.
You can also click on the “Show filing table” button and see if the business has been consistent with filing taxes.
It is to be noted that the Central Board of Direct Taxes has made it mandatory for businesses to go through physical verification of their office premise if their GST registration is done without Aadhaar authentication.
Understanding GST number
The GST number comprises 15 digits which include numbers and alphabets. You can do a preliminary verification of the GST number as these numbers themselves throw some light on the business.
Let’s understand the GST number in detail:
- The first two digits: The first two digits will always be numbers. They represent the state code of the registered person where the business is incorporated.
- The middle 10 digits: The digits after the first two numbers are a mix of numbers and alphabets. These are basically the PAN number of the person under whose name the business is registered.
- 13th digit: The 13th digit, which is usually a number, tells you how many registrations the business has done in a State with the same PAN. If the number of registrations are in the 10s, this number changes to alphabets. So, a business with 10 registrations in a State will have A as its 13th digit, and 11 registrations will have B, and so on.
- The next digit: By default, the 14th digit is always Z.
- The last digit: This is used for detection of errors, and it can be either an alphabet or a number.
So, except the last two digits, the rest of the numbers are indicative of something or the other about the business. The middle 13 digit is specifically useful, and you can match them against the PAN of the business.
If you are trying to make a transaction to another business, you should always verify their GST number. Many businesses fake their GSTIN to avoid paying taxes.
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