Normally the seller collects GST and deposits it. Under reverse charge, the law flips the table: the recipient pays the tax directly to government. RCM exists to tax supplies from people the system cannot easily police — unregistered transporters, foreign service providers, advocates — by making the registered buyer the collection point. It is also the most commonly missed liability in small-business audits, because nothing on the purchase invoice reminds you. Here is the working map.
The notified services every business should screen
- Goods Transport Agency (GTA) freight — the classic RCM head for anyone moving goods (subject to the transporter's declared option)
- Advocate and legal services to business entities
- Services from the government or local authority (with exceptions like post and transport)
- Sponsorship services to companies and firms
- Director's services to the company (sitting fees, professional charges — not salary under employment)
- Import of services (any service from abroad for business — software, consulting, ads on foreign platforms not billing through Indian entities)
- Security services and renting of motor vehicles from non-corporate providers to corporates
- Rent paid for commercial property taken from an unregistered landlord (per current notifications) — check applicability to your case
A handful of goods (cashew in shell, bidi wrapper leaves, raw cotton from agriculturists, etc.) also attract RCM, relevant to specific trades.
How the mechanics actually work
RCM tax is paid in cash — your ITC balance cannot be used to discharge it. You then claim that same amount back as ITC (if the underlying service is otherwise creditable), making RCM cash-flow-neutral over a month for most businesses, but never ignorable: the liability exists whether or not you claim the credit. Where the supplier is unregistered, you must raise a self-invoice and a payment voucher — documents auditors ask for by name. Report RCM liability in GSTR-3B (table 3.1(d)) and the credit in table 4, and remember: RCM applies even if you are otherwise below threshold — liability to pay RCM can itself force registration.
Almost every trading and manufacturing business pays lorry freight, and almost every GST audit begins there: 'Show me your freight ledger and your RCM payments.' Reconcile the two monthly and the most common audit para disappears.
Import of services: the digital-age RCM
Payments to foreign providers for business services — cloud software, SaaS subscriptions, overseas consultants, advertising bought from foreign entities — are imports of services, taxable under RCM at the recipient's hands. Small businesses accumulate surprising exposure here through card payments nobody routes past the accountant: three years of foreign SaaS at 18% plus interest makes an unpleasant audit finding. Route foreign spends through a monthly review, pay the RCM, take the credit, and the issue costs you only paperwork.
Composition dealers and RCM
Composition-scheme taxpayers get no relief: they pay RCM at full applicable rates on notified inward supplies and — the sting — cannot claim it back as ITC. Freight-heavy or import-service-heavy businesses on composition should price this permanent cost in, and it is one more factor in the composition-versus-regular decision.
A compliance routine that holds
Month-end, screen four ledgers against the RCM list: freight, legal/professional fees, director payments, and foreign payments — plus rent if your landlord is unregistered. Compute, pay in cash, self-invoice where needed, claim credit, and file the figures in 3B's correct tables. Keep a one-page RCM register (date, supplier, nature, taxable value, tax paid, credit claimed); in scrutiny, that register converts a suspicion into a five-minute closure.
How Aidwish helps
Aidwish builds the RCM screen into clients' monthly compliance — ledger scans, self-invoicing templates, 3B mapping — and quantifies and regularises historic exposure quietly before an audit prices it with penalties.