Love is a word – marriage is a sentence
They say ‘love’ is a word but marriage is a sentence (often for life). In a case before, the CESTAT, Revenue argued that marriage is a social contract, but the Tribunal held that it is well settled position from the time immemorial that, marriage is sacred. The whole dispute is about Service Tax on Mandap Keepers. Now in this budget, revenue has brought in a clarification that “social function” includes marriage.
Is marriage an event? Yes, if somebody is orqanising the vent of marriage he is an event manager and liable to tax.
What happens if the event is death? Does managing a funeral amount to performing a taxable service? In India death is also a very important event (at least for the survivors) and there are persons who undertake to do the whole job from finding people to carry the body to immersion of the ashes in some holy river, accompanied by chant of Vedic hymns.
Will Service Tax sleuths chase corpses or will we have a Range in one of those burial grounds?