Proprietor Registration Across Chennai

Unlike a company or LLP, a sole proprietorship is not created by filing a charter document with any registrar, because there is no separate legal person in the eyes of law. The proprietor and the business are one and the same, transacting on the proprietor's own PAN, and the proprietor bears unlimited personal liability for business debts. Consequently there is no single incorporation Act for a proprietorship. What clients call proprietorship registration is in reality the process of obtaining the operative business registrations and licences that give the trading activity a verifiable identity, namely GST, Udyam, Shops and Establishment, a current bank account and any sector licences that apply.

Section 22 of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act 2017 makes a supplier liable to register once aggregate turnover in a financial year exceeds the threshold, which for Tamil Nadu is Rs.40 lakh for a supplier dealing exclusively in goods and Rs.20 lakh where any service is supplied. Section 24 overrides the threshold and makes registration compulsory irrespective of turnover in specified cases, including persons making any inter-State taxable supply, persons required to pay tax under reverse charge, casual taxable persons and persons supplying through an e-commerce operator. For a proprietor this is usually the first formal registration obtained and the GSTIN embeds the proprietor's own PAN.

The Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Act 2006, read with Notification S.O. 2119(E) dated 26-06-2020 that operationalised Udyam registration from 01-07-2020, allows a proprietorship to obtain a Udyam Registration Number on the strength of the proprietor's Aadhaar and PAN through a free self-declaration. Classification follows the composite investment-and-turnover criteria. Udyam is not compulsory but is the single most useful proprietorship credential because it evidences the existence of the enterprise for banks, unlocks priority-sector and collateral-free credit, and gives access to the delayed-payment protection of Sections 15 to 18 of the same Act.

The Tamil Nadu Shops and Establishments Act 1947 governs shops and commercial establishments in the State and requires an employer to register the establishment with the jurisdictional Inspector under the Act, generally within a short period of commencing work. For a proprietor operating a physical shop or office and engaging employees, this registration is the document that regulates working hours, weekly holidays, leave and conditions of employment, and is commonly demanded by banks as a second proof of business for a current account. Purely home-based proprietors with no employees may fall outside its practical scope, which should be assessed case by case.

Because a proprietorship is not a separate assessee, its profits are taxed in the proprietor's own hands at individual slab rates and are reported in the proprietor's return of income under Section 139. A proprietor running an eligible business may opt for the presumptive scheme of Section 44AD, declaring profit at 8 percent of turnover, or 6 percent to the extent receipts are digital, where turnover is within the prescribed ceiling; a proprietor in an eligible profession may use Section 44ADA at 50 percent of gross receipts. Presumptive filers use ITR-4 (Sugam) while others use ITR-3, and books and audit obligations under Section 44AB follow the turnover and profit tests.

Where a proprietor becomes liable to deduct tax at source, for instance on rent, contractor payments or salaries once the business grows, Section 203A of the Income Tax Act 1961 requires the proprietor to obtain a Tax Deduction and Collection Account Number, or TAN, which is distinct from the proprietor's PAN. The TAN is applied for in Form 49B and must be quoted on every TDS challan, statement and certificate. Small proprietors not covered by the TDS provisions, and those covered only by Section 194-IA type single-transaction deductions that use PAN, do not need a TAN, so the requirement is triggered by the nature of payments rather than by the act of setting up.

A proprietor whose business involves manufacture, storage, distribution or sale of food, such as a home baker, cloud kitchen, tiffin service or provision store, is a food business operator and must obtain an FSSAI registration or licence under Section 31 of the Food Safety and Standards Act 2006 before commencing operations. Petty operators and units with annual turnover up to Rs.12 lakh take a basic registration, while larger units take a State or Central licence. The 14-digit FSSAI number must be displayed at the premises and on labels, and food aggregators such as Swiggy and Zomato will not onboard a proprietor kitchen without it.

Profession tax in Tamil Nadu is a local-body levy administered by the Greater Chennai Corporation and other municipalities and town panchayats under the Tamil Nadu Municipal Laws provisions on tax on professions, trades, callings and employments. A proprietor carrying on a trade or profession within a local body is liable to enrol and pay profession tax on a half-yearly basis based on income or turnover slabs, and additionally to deduct and remit profession tax from the salaries of any employees. The amounts are modest and capped, but enrolment is often overlooked by new proprietors and is checked at the time of trade-licence renewal.