GST practitioners khatre me:
In a recent case, a GST practitioner was held guilty for fraud. Let us have a look at the entire case.
5 tips to make your GST practice safe:
- Always verify the documents. Get them signed in front of you or send staff to verify the person. If it is not possible to make a physical visit, at least make a skype call to ensure that the client exists. In some cases, documents of a deceased person were used by some fraudsters to take registration. Again the professionals involved had to suffer as initially he was held liable.
- Always file returns and other documents with properly authenticated information. Unless the client sends you an email from an authorized email ID. Never file an email on the basis of a whats app of the email conversation.
- Don’t use your personal email id and number for registration of client. In a recent case, professional was held guilty for fraud as he used his email and contact number for a client. He received all the communication on behalf of a client. The taxes were not paid from 2018 and that account was proved to be a fraudulent account. He never forwarded the communication from department to the client. It was held that he was making a fraud using the client’s account. There was another registration for that person. He was doing a normal business in that account.
- Take authority from the client to use his DSC. You may be held for misusing DSC also. A written authority that you are eligible to file his compliances using DSC. Never use that DSC for any other purpose.
- Even if you have used your contact details for registration, forward all emails to the relevant client. Never make a reply without proper authentication.