new delhi if you are a salaried employee and have taken a flat on rent the recently introduced 18 goods and service tax under the reserve charge mechanism will not apply to you from 18 july a tenant is required to pay gst at 18 for renting a residential property if heshe is registered under gst however the gst paid by the tenant can be claimed through input tax creditan input tax credit means claiming gst paid on purchasing goods and services can be set off against future tax liabilitywhile commercial properties such as offices or retail space on lease earlier attracted gst the lease of residential properties by companies or individuals did not attract any tax following the 47th gst council recommendations residential property given out on lease or rent attracts gst under certain circumstances with this change any residential property being used by a companyperson for the purposes of employee accommodation guest house or office use has also been subjected to 18 gst for example a professional or company renting an apartment for their office are liable to pay gst on the rent the gst would be paid by the tenant the government however has left a few exceptions for instance if the property is being used as residence by the tenant or if the landlord is not registered under the gst ie the landlords total income does not exceed the 20 lakh rupees threshold in a financial year said jayant bajaj associate skv law officesto keep things simple the liability to deposit gst has fallen on the tenant the landlord is neither required to obtain any registration under gst nor make any payment of gst on such renting servicefrom the landlords perspective things are fairly simple whether or not the tenant is registered under gst he does not have to pay gst on this renting service please bear in mind theres no basic threshold over which gst is to be paid gst has to be paid by the tenant on the first rupee of rent paid said ankit jain partner ved jain associatesthe annual threshold limit for registration is a turnover of rs 20 lakh for service providers say a business consultant and rs 40 lakh for a supplier of goodsfor instance if a corporate entity has taken a residential flat on rent for its employee and here the landlord is also a gstunregistered individual in such a scenario gst will have to be paid by the corporate entity which is the tenant what this means is that apartments for senior executives rented by companies will now cost more as it will attract an 18 per cent goods and services tax gstfor example if a landlord rents an apartment to a company for its executive at rs 1 lakh per month a gst of rs 18000 will be charged monthly here the lessee will have to bear the cost and not the landlordfor private corporates i believe the impact of this change will be fairly