Kolkata is where we work from. Our office is at 129A, Bangur Avenue, Block A, and a good share of the seller files we open are within an hour of it: apparel and hosiery businesses that moved online, leather goods makers around Bantala, handicraft and handloom sellers listing on marketplaces, and FMCG distributors who started their own storefront when the trade channel slowed.
The accounting problem is the same in every one of those files. A marketplace pays a single amount into the bank. Inside it are commission, shipping, storage, advertising, returns, GST collected at source and income-tax deducted at source. Book that one number and your turnover is understated, your GST return will not agree with what the operator filed, and you have no idea which products are actually making money.
We take the settlement apart every month and put it back together correctly, inside the accounting software you already own. This page covers what that involves for a seller based in West Bengal.
That last line matters more than it sounds. Most of what goes wrong in seller books is a treatment decision, not a data entry error, and treatment decisions need someone qualified looking at them.
Your warehouse is usually in your own state. Sellers in and around Kolkata who put stock into a fulfilment centre generally end up in the Dankuni, Howrah or Uluberia belt, which is West Bengal. That is a meaningful advantage over a Delhi-based seller, whose nearest fulfilment options sit across a state border. In your case the warehouse address is normally added to your existing GST registration as an additional place of business through a REG-14 amendment, with no government fee. No second registration, no state-to-state stock transfer, no invoice needed for moving your own goods.
That changes the day you take space in Bihar, Assam or Odisha to cut delivery times into the east. At that point the second state becomes a distinct person under GST, and moving your own stock across the border becomes a supply under Schedule I of the CGST Act, requiring a tax invoice and IGST. It is tax neutral if done properly and a mess if skipped. We handle the amendment either way through our add place of business service.
Professional tax applies here. West Bengal levies professional tax, so if you employ packers, photographers, customer support staff or a warehouse team, there is an enrolment and a return cycle to run alongside payroll. Sellers who started as a one-person operation and hired their first three people usually discover this late. The detail is in our West Bengal professional tax guide.
GST disputes now have a bench in the city. The GSTAT Kolkata Bench has been hearing appeals since 23 March 2026, covering West Bengal, Sikkim and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. For a seller sitting on an adverse order, that is the difference between a paper appeal filed somewhere else and a hearing twenty minutes from Alipore. We handle those separately through GSTAT appeals, but it is worth knowing the route exists before you accept a demand.
Intra-state e-way bill limits are a state subject. West Bengal sets its own threshold for movement inside the state, and it is not the same as the inter-state figure. Check the current state notification before you assume a local delivery does not need one.
Both come out of the same payout and are constantly mixed up.
| GST TCS | Income-tax TDS | |
|---|---|---|
| Law | Section 52, CGST Act | Section 393(1), Table Sl. No. 8(v), Income-tax Act 2025 (formerly Section 194-O) |
| Rate | 0.5 per cent of net taxable supplies, since 10 July 2024 | 0.1 per cent of gross sales, since 1 October 2024 |
| Where it goes | Your electronic cash ledger, once accepted | Advance tax against your PAN |
| Common error | Booked as an expense and never claimed | Never reconciled to the annual tax statement |
Neither is a cost. If either is sitting in your profit and loss account, your profit is understated and you are leaving money with the government that you could be using to pay your own liability.
If you sell both on marketplaces and on your own site, the two channels need to be kept apart in the ledger. They carry different tax treatment, different fee structures and completely different margin profiles, and merging them is the fastest way to make both unreadable.
Professional fees are quoted excluding GST. Any government fees are payable separately at actuals. Pricing is set against the things that actually create work: number of channels, order and return volume, number of GST registrations and inventory complexity. Not a percentage of your turnover.
Usually yes. Section 24(ix) of the CGST Act requires registration for anyone supplying through an operator that collects tax at source, whatever the turnover. A narrow exemption exists for small sellers of goods under Notification No. 34/2023-Central Tax, but only if you stay under the West Bengal threshold, make no inter-state supplies at all, sell in one state only, hold a PAN and take an enrolment number before your first sale. One order shipped to Bihar ends it.
No. Those are in West Bengal, so the warehouse is added to your existing registration as an additional place of business through a REG-14 amendment. A separate registration is only needed when the warehouse is in another state.
You need a registration in that state, and moving your own goods there becomes a supply between distinct persons under Schedule I of the CGST Act. That means a tax invoice and IGST, with credit taken at the receiving end. Done properly it costs nothing overall. Skipped, it breaks both your stock ledger and your GST position.
Yes. West Bengal levies professional tax, with employer and enrolment obligations that run alongside payroll. It is a common gap for sellers who have just hired their first warehouse or support team.
Often the cleanest arrangement is that your accountant keeps doing what they do well and we take the settlement reconciliation and the GST position. If you would rather move the whole file, we do a proper handover with a clean cut-off and a full data export.
It depends on channels, order and return volume, number of registrations and the state of the current books, not on turnover. Send one month of settlement data and you will get a fixed quote rather than a range.
Tell us what you need and a real CA calls you back, with no scripts and no transfers. Call 72783 76654. Mon - Sat, 10:00 AM - 7:00 PM IST.
Reviewed by the CA and CS Team, CorporateWalla · Last updated 28 August 2026 · · Sources: GST portal, Income Tax Department, CBIC
Canonical: https://corporatewalla.com/services/ecommerce-accounting/kolkata
