The news about the seizing of Mahesh Babu's bank accounts for not paying the service tax since 2007-08 has sent wild shocks for many in the film industry and in business in general. There have been many service tax defaulters in the state owing to various reasons.

After the introduction of GST in 2016, many thought that the Service Tax defaulters will not be prosecuted but only the GST from 2016 will be tracked. Surprisingly, this Mahesh Babu's incident is resulting in high blood pressure for many.  Coming to the film industry, there is no practice by many artists and technicians to raise an invoice and mention GST/ Service Tax in that. So, producers pay in lump sum apparently inclusive of all taxes.
So, generally, it becomes the responsibility of the artists to pay all kinds of taxes. It is a known fact that, if they pay all taxes in full, their margins will become very minimal and sometimes negligible.

So, they take the risk and don't pay taxes. But when the time comes, it will be like a mountain on the head. So, the only advice for every artist and technician is to take GST number, raise an invoice to producers and pay every tax promptly to avoid future shocks.

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