Service tax on legal service by advocate

In terms of Notfn No. 30/2012-S.T the service tax on Reverse Charge Mechanism is to be paid by the servicev recipient  in respect of services "provided or agreed to be provided by individual advocate or a firm of advocates by way of legal services".

Thus service tax is payable by recipient only in case of services by "individual advocate or a firm of advocates"

Under Notfn No. 25/2012-S.T "advocate" is defined as "“Advocate” has the meaning assigned to it in clause (a) of sub-section (1) of section 2 of the Advocates Act, 1961 (25 of 1961)"

Thus, it appears that the services by a "qualified" advocate are only taxable under RCM.