FATCA – Which Countries Are In And Out The controversial US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) law is set to start from July 1, 2014, so with less than 21 days to go, here’s a look at which countries are in and who is outside of the tax network…. – Continue reading
Indian Government has finally heeded the clarion call of the taxpayers who were besieged by transfer pricing adjustments.That said, while an earnest beginning has been made, it would bring the matter to a perfect close if the apparent deficiencies in the draft rules were to be addressed Since its introduction… – Continue reading
NEW DELHI: India, which blacklisted Cyprus in 2013 for not sharing tax information under the treaty, is in dialogue with the island nation to resolve the issue, a top finance ministry official said today. “It’s not only exchange of information but it is also the quality of exchange of information… – Continue reading
Unveiling the department’s plan of making the life of tax evaders tough in the coming days, Kapur said a new and intelligent database to keep a check on such instances will be brought out later this year and made fully operational by 2016 The menace of tax evasion is “spoiling”… – Continue reading
The United States is through trying to needle the OECD’s base erosion and profit-shifting project with pinpricks. Last week, Robert Stack, U.S. Treasury deputy assistant secretary (international tax affairs), abandoned the subtle digs Treasury had been using to attack BEPS and flat-out said the United States is extremely disappointed in… – Continue reading
NEW DELHI: Telecom equipment maker Nokia extended an olive branch to the Indian government, saying it wants to resolve an ongoing tax dispute amicably and that arbitration is not a priority. The Finnish firm also underlined India’s potential as a manufacturing hub, saying the dispute aside, it has had a… – Continue reading
MUMBAI: With its subsidiary Cairn India facing Rs 20,495-crore tax notice, billionaire Anil Agarwal-led Vedanta Group today said it is “frustrated” by the tax demand raised on it using retrospective legislation. The Income Tax Department had in March slapped a Rs 20,495 crore tax demand on Cairn India for failing… – Continue reading
Cite ambiguity over assessing officers’ power to withdraw tax demand and pending appeals Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) have decided to not file an application seeking exemption from the Minimum Alternate Tax (MAT) by citing DTAAs (Double Taxation Avoidance Agreements). FPIs decided to not apply for an exemption because of the… – Continue reading
NEW DELHI — India’s goal of a friendlier tax regime for global companies to help power China-beating economic growth is hitting a manpower hurdle. Fewer than 20 officials face the complex task of working with hundreds of multinationals on pacts to avert tax rows, people familiar with the matter said,… – Continue reading
NEW DELHI: Several countries, including tax havens like British Virgin Islands, Cyprus and Jersey, have begun sharing information with Indian authorities, in a development that is expected to boost the government’s efforts in tracking black money stashed abroad. Sources said some of the information had already been verified, adding that… – Continue reading
New Delhi/Mumbai: India’s goal of a friendlier tax regime for global companies to help power China-beating economic growth is hitting a manpower hurdle. Fewer than 20 officials face the complex task of working with hundreds of multinational companies (MNCs) on pacts to avert tax rows, people familiar with the matter… – Continue reading
Transfer pricing has been raking in significant tax controversies and has also emerged as one of the leading arms of the Indian tax law. Transfer pricing has been raking in significant tax controversies and has also emerged as one of the leading arms of the Indian tax law contributing a… – Continue reading
MUNICH — Leaders of the Group of Seven nations are set to agree on the creation of a system to counter tax evasion and tax avoidance by multinational enterprises, during the G-7 summit meeting to be held in Germany on Sunday and Monday, The Yomiuri Shimbun has learned. G-7 leaders… – Continue reading
NEW DELHI: Mauritius has regained the position as top source of foreign direct investment (FDI) into India by pushing Singapore to the second slot in 2014-15. Mauritius accounted for about 29 per cent of the country’s total FDI inflows last fiscal. In 2013-14, Singapore had replaced Mauritius as the top… – Continue reading
Taxman should instill the fear of “incarceration, loss of liberty and social opprobrium” in tax evaders and prosecute them in large numbers to create a credible deterrence against the menace of black money… Taxman should instill the fear of “incarceration, loss of liberty and social opprobrium” in tax evaders and… – Continue reading
Amid a global black money crackdown including by India, Switzerland has announced a stringent due diligence regime for its banks to “reject” accepting illicit funds from both existing and new customers. Swiss banks, known for their strict secrecy practices, would also terminate ties with existing clients who are found to… – Continue reading
BERNE: Amid a global black money crackdown including by India, Switzerland has announced a stringent due diligence regime for its banks to ‘reject’ accepting illicit funds from both existing and new customers. Swiss banks, known for their strict secrecy practices, would also terminate relationships with existing clients who are found… – Continue reading
Companies take a second look at domestic outsourcing options as Syracuse, Jacksonville, Tampa and Lansing top the list of American hot spots for IT and business process services. A number of midsize American cities now make attractive alternatives to offshore locations in India and elsehwere for IT and business process… – Continue reading
MUMBAI: Two associations representing foreign portfolio investors are seeking to join the battle over minimum alternate tax in the Supreme Court, although analysts are unclear if entities without a tax treaty will benefit. Investment Association, based in London, and Hong Kong-based Asia Securities Industry & Financial Markets Association (ASIFMA) plan… – Continue reading
India joined the Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement on Automatic Exchange of Financial Account Information on 3rd June, 2015, in Paris, France, alongwith Australia, Canada, Costa Rica, Indonesia and New Zealand. On our behalf, the Declaration to comply with the provisions of the MCAA was signed by H.E. Mr. Mohan Kumar,… – Continue reading
Many mid-size U.S. cities and other areas now make attractive alternatives to India and other offshore locations for companies considering consolidating finance, IT, and other business services operations for shared service or global business services centers, according to new research from The Hackett Group, Inc. The diminishing gap in labor… – Continue reading
The Income Tax Department will retain the detailed questions on foreign assets and income of resident Indian citizens… The Income Tax Department will retain the detailed questions on foreign assets and income of resident Indian citizens in the revised tax return forms, to be issued shortly. The relaxation announced by… – Continue reading
With the Swiss government signing a landmark Automatic Exchange of Information (AEOI) agreement with the European Union (EU) last week, efforts are underway for a similar bilateral pact with India. The effort, which is expected to provide a strong impetus to the Narendra Modi government’s pitch to combat the black… – Continue reading
NEW DELHI: CBDT has issued fresh instructions to the taxman to ensure that information on individuals holding black money abroad is strictly kept secret as it stressed that any “careless” act could give an excuse to the data supplying country for not helping India in the future. “In many countries,… – Continue reading
Berne: Continuing to shed its famed banking secrecy veil, Switzerland today made public more names about which it had been approached from abroad for information, even as it published fresh gazette notifications about two Indians – Sayed Mohammed Masood and Chand Kauser Mohammed Masood. Switzerland has already shared some details… – Continue reading
The present French Tax Update will focus on an overview of several noteworthy French tax court decisions issued during the past few months, in particular in relation with double tax treaty conditions to benefit from a tax credit, abuse of law challenges, increased amortization rates, and priority preliminary ruling requests… – Continue reading
New Delhi: The government on Sunday introduced simplified income tax return forms, abandoning a previous attempt to seek detailed disclosures of foreign trips and bank accounts from taxpayers, even as it retained clauses to check evasion. While taxpayers will not have to disclose details of all foreign travel undertaken by… – Continue reading
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has in an exclusive interview with ANI said that his government is ‘fully committed’ on the black money issue, adding that they want to make it more difficult to evade taxes and siphon money abroad. “My Government is fully committed on the issue of Black Money…. – Continue reading
The State government has initiated the process of attending to the long-standing issue related to taxing e-commerce companies in the State. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Thursday held a meeting with representatives of global online retailer, Amazon, and senior officials of the Commercial Taxes and Finance Departments. The department, in last… – Continue reading
MUMBAI: India’s capital markets regulator has stepped in to back foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) as they oppose the minimum alternate tax (MAT). In a recent letter to the finance ministry, Sebi has voiced its concerns over the possible impact of MAT on foreign funds — the largest group of investors… – Continue reading
After securing Switzerland’s cooperation in getting information about people with undisclosed income in bank accounts, the tax department is now focusing on other such destinations. According to sources, other countries have also begun sharing information on assets held there by Indians, and the I-T department will investigate this and issue… – Continue reading
MUMBAI: A special service provided by HSBC Geneva may help some Swiss bank account holders to escape penalty and prosecution by the Indian tax office. The British bank had advised and helped them to hold unaccounted wealth through complex structures that have no apparent links with resident Indians. Money was… – Continue reading
Thousands of Indian citizens in the US – from IT workers, health professionals, students and everyone else under the sun – will soon be innocent victims to snooping by the Indian government. If an Indian citizen holds a bank account in the US, minute details about his/her bank account will… – Continue reading
After Switzerland initiated measures to regulate its banks, most of the unaccounted money stashed in Swiss banks is suspected to have been diverted to countries like Mauritius and Singapore. The Special Investigation Team on black money has taken cognisance of the issue raised by the enforcement agencies. “Although the Swiss… – Continue reading
NEW DELHI: Months after it failed to sign the G20 information sharing agreement, India is set to sign the global treaty on June 3 which will enable it to access data related to bank accounts from across the world, including tax havens that were earlier refusing to cooperate. While information… – Continue reading
Half the 30 such cases, worth Rs 10,000 crore, to be addressed India is set to sign agreements with Japan to resolve as many as 15 transfer pricing disputes. These agreements follow the one recently signed with the US. The agreements will be for cases that fall in the ambit… – Continue reading
Bern, Switzerland: As India tries to uncover who has stashed untaxed money abroad, Switzerland is, in an unusual deviation from its super-secretive banking rules, releasing the names of people who are being investigated for alleged tax evasion in their countries of origin. Among the seven Indians named so far by… – Continue reading
NEW DELHI: On a day when Prime Minister Narendra Modi hit out, albeit indirectly, at the Congress for looting the country for 60 years, Swiss authorities named five Indians among several foreign nationals with Swiss bank accounts. Their names have been made public by Switzerland in its federal gazette. The… – Continue reading
Non-Resident Indians (NRI) constitutes a significant portion of buyer percentage when it comes to real estate transactions in India. Irrespective of constituting a considerable portion, they still face a lot of hassles in the process of taxation when buying or selling properties. Rajan Pillay representing his client who is an… – Continue reading
New Delhi: Government on Monday asked income tax department to take steps to unearth domestic black money while keeping a close watch on ponzi schemes, bogus IPOs and other such illegal means of raising money. The government is determined to fight menace of black money both abroad and inside the… – Continue reading
In a bold attempt to reduce frivolous tax demands, the income tax department has decided to overhaul the annual performance appraisal system for tax officials, relying on the quality and effectiveness of their work and not plainly on the quantum of tax demands raised. Sources said that error-free and well-reasoned… – Continue reading
Litigation on transfer pricing issues has reached humongous proportion in India. The existing law of the use of arithmetic mean for determination of arm’s length price can be credited as a major igniter of such litigations as arithmetic mean had a tendency to be skewed by outlier comparables. Considering this… – Continue reading
NEW DELHI: The finance ministry on Thursday issued the draft scheme of proposed rules for computation of arm’s length price for international and specified domestic transactions between related entities undertaken on or after April 1, 2014. The use of multiple-year data and the “range” concept in the transfer pricing regime… – Continue reading
New Delhi, May 22: The government plans to phase out exemptions and lower the effective tax rates to global levels to encourage better compliance and leave more money in the hands of the people. Speaking to reporters on the completion of one year of the Narendra Modi-government, finance minister Arun… – Continue reading
The city’s most famous real-estate marketer has said he’s “leaning toward” supporting a levy on people who buy and then sell homes over a short period of time. “I suggest we look at a declining tax that sees a percentage of profits taxed if a home is sold—whether it’s three… – Continue reading
The finance ministry, after due consultations with the SIT on black money and various financial probe agencies, has decided that a team of senior officials will hold bilateral meetings with foreign jurisdictions either in India or at the locations of their counterparts to thrash out issues quickly, reports the India… – Continue reading
OECD, G20 team up to plug loopholes that allow companies evade taxes in jurisdictions they operate to prevent tax base erosion There is now a serious global attempt to ensure that multinationals pay taxes in the jurisdiction in which they carry out their business. The attempt is being made keeping… – Continue reading
New Delhi: Indian tax authorities and investigators probing black money cases have decided to hold one-to-one meetings with their overseas counterparts based in tax haven nations and other countries to “deepen” cooperation in the fight against illicit funds stashed abroad. As part of the measures to combat the menace, investigators… – Continue reading
India has amended section 6 of the Income Tax Act to introduce place of effective management (POEM) as the test to determine the place of residence of companies in the country. The change was included Finance Act, 2015, which received the President’s assent on May 12, 2015. The change will… – Continue reading
IRS Rules That Policyholder Owns Mutual Fund Shares Under Nonqualified Deferred Annuity Contract The IRS ruled in Private Letter Ruling 201519001 on the tax treatment of a nonqualified deferred annuity contract issued by a life insurance company, finding that public mutual fund shares under the contract will be treated as… – Continue reading
