In case of transfer of a business who is liable to pay service tax?

This should and would be defined in the agreement to purchase the business and also could be based on the type of sale. Say you purchase a corporation by simply purchasing all the shares of the corporation from the previous owners. In this case you would have also purchased all the receivables and debts of the business. I was considering purchasing a corporation years ago but due to the financial situation of the business we proposed doing an asset buyout. In this case we would have purchased the assets of the company including the name, patents, and receivables of the company but not the shares, debts, and assets that were pledged as security.