July 1st 2017 will be remembered as a historic date for the Indian economy, with the implementation of Goods & Services Tax (GST) the Indian taxation landscape underwent a complete transformation that day since. However, given the complex and ambiguous nature of the multi-layered tax system, businesses across the nation were in a panic state to create and implement a GST compliant internal set up before the due date. However, the consultants across India helped the economy to stabilize and accept the favourable movement.

The brainchild of Kapil Mahani and Devan Gupta (Co-Founders), GST Expertise provides end-to-end GST implementation solutions and assists businesses for pre-implementation, review of the compliance and training, among others. Being well-versed with GST framework and Indirect Taxes in general, the firm is committed towards providing its clients with appropriate legal advice within the ambit of law, in addition to wholeheartedly representing its clients before various tax authorities, Tribunals, High Courts and Supreme Court.

While Kapil leads the India and Gulf Indirect Tax Practise, Devan has an excellent understanding of the business and GST laws and leads the Transaction structuring practise, among other partners. The firm brings to the table an extensive experience of working with the Big Four consulting firms “Having prior experience of working with clients implementing GST in other countries, we were able to leverage those key learning in the Indian landscape,” explains Kapil. Additionally, deep industry expertise in indirect taxes such as Service Tax, Excise, Customs and VAT among others, puts GST Expertise in a favourable position to render taxation, transaction structuring, tax modelling and VAT compliance handling on centralized basis, litigation, end-to-end Indirect Tax Advisory and health check-ups to clients from various industries.

Initial Momentum through Visibility in the Industry
Founded with the aim of providing these niche services accessible to mid-level organizations in the most-effective way, GST Expertise got incorporated in 2017. Within the first few days, the firm was able

to bring one of the biggest names on board as its client. Drawing synergy from the first client, GST Expertise signed various reputable clients from across industries such as textile, export, and logistics, manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, aviation & trading among others in the next two months.

"The firm believes that ‘Tax has to follow the businesses and it can never happen that ‘Businesses has to follow the tax’"

Simultaneously, the team also laboured to build a strong international practice within a few months in UAE. GST Expertise won various clients in Dubai from the mid to large segment while drawing learning the principles and methodologies that succeeded in the Indian markets. The firm has gathered a team of experts stationed in Dubai, UAE to serve the Gulf, and various European & African regions. Recently, the firm has started its operations in East & West India through its Ranchi & Mumbai offices, respectively.

Apart from focusing on quality deliverables and creating a strong market presence, GST Expertise tried to create its brand in the industry. “We were invited to conduct knowledge sharing sessions at some of the significant forums and publish articles for some of the reputed publications. We have represented various unions in front of the finance ministry, and also provided significant opinions to formulate amendments in the law, for which we have received appreciation from various union leaders,” adds Devan.

The founders of the company have also recently authored a book about GST, summarising the tricky positions in the Input Tax, in addition to a guide to prepare the Annual return and certifying the GST audit by professionals, which has got advance appraisals from senior people of the Industry and top chartered accountants of India.

Market Differentiation
GST is known to be a complex and highly dynamic tax; dealing with it effectively thus requires the analysis of a business structure from an indirect tax perspective. GST Expertise provides assistance in identifying risk areas and sustainable planning opportunities for indirect taxes throughout the tax life cycle, helping clients meet compliance obligations and business goals around the world. Averse to rendering cookie cutter services, the firm believes in first digging deep to understand a client’s business and noting every transaction conducted in detail.

“Based on that understanding of the business in detail by GSTExpertise Team, we get a

sense of the impact of the legal advisory in terms of indirect taxes,” adds Kapil. He also mentions that ‘firm believes on one methodology that ‘Tax has to follow the businesses and it can never happen that ‘Businesses has to follow the tax’. Backed up by deep-rooted transaction data, the firm is supporting the clients not only in the technical interpretation, but also in doing the health checks including regular checks on the Input System, surprise audit, and anything that takes to set the client on an auto-pilot mode without the need of preparing offline spreadsheets.

Catching Every Industry Update
The taxation maverick organization also has an accomplished R&D team, which stays on top of industry-specific legal updates and passes on the information to the client in a palatable and lucid form. The innovative firm has recently launched an in-house Indirect Tax Weekly Digest for its client that covers knowledge about various industries, legal updates, litigation and compliance among others in the form of a summary.

Having imbibed industry best practices and built a team of committed experts, the New Delhi headquartered company is now expanding its PAN India presence by working/joining hands with those firms across India who have talent but do not have methodology to work in the expertise fields for the better clients. Through this association, they will not only get GSTExpertise trade name, but also get the synergies of knowledge, employees, working style, legal positions of the firm and the regular support and credentials to increase their practise size and work for those clients which was never imagined by them. Additionally, GST Expertise is looking to extend its international reach to Bahrain and Singapore in the years to come.

Key Management
Kapil Mahani, Co-Founder
Kapil is a qualified Chartered Accountant with more than 10 years of experience in Indirect Tax consulting.

Devan Gupta, Co-Founder
Devan is a qualified Chartered Accountant and has around ten years of post-qualification experience in Auditing and Assurance.

Offices:
New Delhi, Mumbai, Ranchi & Dubai

Offerings:
GST Advisory & Consultancy, Compliance Outsourcing, Refund, Foreign Trade Policy, Representation Service, Indirect Tax Review & Audit and Training