What is OIDAR Supply
Online Information Database Access and Retrieval services (OIDAR) i.e OIDAR services under GST are primarily those services that are provided through the medium of internet and received by the recipient online without having any physical interface with the supplier of such services.
Following services are considered as OIDAR services under GST:

• advertising on the internet
• providing cloud services
• provision of e-books, movie, music, software and other intangibles through telecommunication networks or internet
• providing data or information, retrievable or otherwise, to any person in electronic form through a computer network
• online supplies of digital content (movies, television shows, music and the like)
• digital data storage
• online gaming

Service	Whether supply is via IT/Internet/Electronic network?	Whether it is Automated & impossible to ensure in the absence of IT?	OIDAR Service
PDF document manually emailed by provider	Yes	no	no
PDF document automatically emailed by provider’ s system	Yes	No	No
PDF document automatically downloaded from site	No	N/A	No
Stock photographs available for automatic download	Yes	Yes	Yes
Online course consisting of pre-recorded videos and downloadable PDFs	Yes	Yes	Yes
Online course consisting of pre-recorded videos and downloadable PDFs plus support from a live tutor	Yes	NO	NO
Individually commissioned content sent in digital form e.g., photographs, reports, medical results	Yes	NO	NO

Treatment of OIDAR services under GST

s OIDAR services are delivered through internet, they can be provided from any place across the world.

For any supply to be taxable under GST, the place of supply for the subject supply should be in India. In case both the supplier of OIDAR Service and recipient of the service are in India, the place of supply would be the location of the service recipient i.e., within India. Accordingly, OIDAR services provided by an Indian supplier to the Indian recipients are taxable in India and supplier of services is required to deposit the applicable GST on the online services provided.

However, for services provided by the foreign suppliers to the Indian recipients, there are special provisions under the GST laws for payment of the tax liability, as detailed herein below.

In case, the supplier of service is located outside India and “non-taxable online service recipient” is located India (not registered under GST), the place of supply would still be India. In this case, overseas service provider providing OIDAR services to the unregistered service recipient in India would be required to deposit the applicable GST in India on such services.

This tax position is summarized in the table below:

Service provider	Service receiver	Person liable to pay Tax:
Within India	Within India (taxable or non-taxable )	Service Provider under forward charge
Outside India	Within India (taxable)	Service receiver under reverse charge
Outside India	Within India (non-taxable)	Service Provider under forward charge

Who is Non-Taxable Online Service Recipient for OIDAR services in GST

Non-taxable online recipient means any government, local authority, governmental authority, an individual or any other person not registered under GST, who receive OIDAR services in relation to any purpose other than commerce, industry or any other business or profession located in India

Thus, non-taxable online service recipients are those persons who are not registered under GST and receive service for non-business purpose. For example, students receiving services from foreign universities, or payment of online game by individuals to overseas service providers. In all such cases, the overseas service provider is required to obtain GST registration in India and discharge the applicable GST liability. The tax applicable on such services is called Integrated GST (IGST).

How to determine service is being provided in India
Where any two of the following non-contradictory conditions are fulfilled, the OIDAR services in GST are treated to be provided in India:

• Location of address presented by the online recipient is in India;
• The card used for payment i.e. Debit card, Credit card or any other payment card has been issued in India;
• Recipient billing address belongs to India;
• The internet protocol address of the device used by the recipient of services belongs to India;
• the bank account of the recipient of services which is used for payment is in India;
• the country code of the subscriber identity module card used by the recipient of services is of India;
• The location of the fixed land line through which the service is received by the recipient is in India.

How can a person located outside India comply with the provisions of OIDAR services under GST?
he supplier of OIDAR services for payment of IGST, is required to obtain a registration under the Simplified Registration Scheme by filling and submitting a form called ‘GST REG-10’.

In case there is a person in the taxable territory (India) representing such overseas supplier for any purpose, such person (representative in India) should obtain OIDAR registration under GST in order to deposit IGST on behalf of the supplier of OIDAR services.

In case the overseas supplier does not have a physical presence or does not have a representative for any purpose in India, he may appoint an agent/ representative in India for the purpose of paying the applicable IGST.

Agent/ representative in India undertakes all compliances in respect of depositing GST and filing GST returns in India on behalf of the provider of OIDAR services from outside India.

How to comply with OIDAR requirements in India

• Appointing of an agent/ representative in India by the overseas provider of OIDAR services to undertake compliance under the GST law
• Obtaining OIDAR registration under GST on behalf of the overseas service provider
• Making monthly payment of GST liability under the category of OIDAR services on behalf of the overseas service provider
• Filing of monthly returns in Form GSTR-5A under the GST laws on behalf of the overseas OIDAR service provider

Services provided by ReinHeads LLP to overseas OIDAR service providers

• Acting as an agent in India for the limited purpose of undertaking GST compliances and providing official correspondence address in India for GST purposes
• Providing assistance in obtaining OIDAR registration under GST on behalf of overseas entities providing OIDAR services
• Computing and depositing the GST liability on a periodic basis
• Acting as an authorized signatory for signing and submitting GST returns on the Government’s portal