What is APOB/PPOB?
According to GST authorities in India, APOB stands for Additional Place of Business and is a commonly used term in the business community, handling multiple business locations/warehouses in a single state.However according to MCA a business can have only a single principal business address in a state, this address must also be registered under GST and this address acts as a Principal Place of Business and all the other locations in the state will be considered as APOB.
With a boom in the Indian e-commerce industry, APOB has assumed even greater importance in present time, since sellers and vendors need to have multiple locations in a state for faster shipment of goods. Many e-commerce companies have realised the importance of APOB and are offering these services for the sellers on their platform.
For example, Amazon has launched the FBA service in India. FBA stands for Fulfilled by Amazon.
In this service a seller sends a fixed quantity of products every month to Amazon’s fulfillment centres. Sellers which have enrolled for these services do not have to worry about the shipment of the product, that responsibility rests with Amazon, the seller will receive an email notification, whenever the product will be dispatched from the FC.The seller has to pay a monthly rent to Amazon on the basis of the space its products are taking up in Amazon’s fulfillment center.
Relevance in e-Commerce Industry
One of the services that have benefitted sellers over an e-commerce platform is Amazon’s FBA service. The term stands for ‘Fulfilled by Amazon’ which remains the same overall over Amazon marketplaces.
In this service a seller sends a fixed quantity of products every month to Amazon’s fulfillment centres. Sellers which have enrolled for these services do not have to worry about the shipment of the product, that responsibility rests with Amazon, the seller will receive an email notification, whenever the product will be dispatched from the FC.The seller has to pay a monthly rent to Amazon on the basis of the space its products are taking up in Amazon’s fulfillment center.
In order to avail this service the seller has to list the Amazon FC as the APOB in their GST registrations.
The tax authorities then pin this location in the GST registration certificates that the FC is an Additional Place of Business for the seller.
Registration Process
As per the GST regime in India, every business needs to have a GST in the state where the business has its sales or operations. But every business doesn’t require a fully functional rented/owned office space as the nature of its business might not require the same.
Why get a Virtual Office ?
Now in order to get a PPOB for GST registration means renting an office space to list as a PPOB address. As a growing business you should not have to worry about paying rents for office addresses and deposits for the same, this is where virtual offices come into the picture.
You can get a virtual office with a coworking space for APOB/PPOB registration, coworking spaces provide space by the seat and hence are able to provide you an address without actually leasing out a property. You can use the flexible seats at the space along with the virtual office service.
To register your business as a principal place of business, you shall be provided with the following documents from the owner of the space:
The documents provided to successfully complete PPOB and APOB are:
GST registration of any type of business can be done with the help of the above-mentioned documents from the space whose address you shall use for your PPOB.
Once you have your PPOB, you can add any number for ABOPs in that state mentioning all the addresses from where all your business shall be carried out. You can notify the GST authority about the additional place by submitting FORM GST REG-14 online.
For rents as low as INR 499/- per month, you can get a virtual office in prime locations anywhere in the country.
If you want to get an APOB/PPOB you can visit our virtual office website or reach us out at support@myhq.in and we will take care of your requirements.