HSBC is under fire, after a large cache of leaked bank files revealed that it helped clients evade taxes and conceal millions of dollars. The files, which cover the period 2005-07, amount to the biggest banking leak in history, shedding light on some 30,000 accounts holding almost $120bn. HSBC was… – Continue reading
Allowance of bilateral treaty for advanced pricing agreement should help mitigate issues around double taxation of income, feels brokerage house Morgan Stanley Moneycontrol Bureau Clarity around definition of export turnover and total turnover for computation of tax exemption in the Budget will help resolution of tax-related disputes, says brokerage house… – Continue reading
NEW DELHI, FEBRUARY 9: The “door for dialogue” with India remains open despite the current “difficult environment” on the tax-related information sharing front, the Swiss Finance Ministry has said. In a just released annual report on International Financial and Tax Matters 2015, Switzerland has admitted that its relations with India… – Continue reading
The Sydney Morning Herald said that a Fairfax Media report “has found a complex web of companies tied to Adani’s Australian coal developments, extending from the low-tax regime of Singapore to the tax haven of the Cayman Islands. Indian mining giant Adani’s 16 billion dollar mining project in Australia’s Queensland… – Continue reading
As countries share more information, opportunities to squirrel away cash abroad will continue to narrow AMONG the sins that have most angered the austerity-weary everywhere is the use of undeclared offshore accounts to stash the wealth of the rich. Greeks were particularly enraged when data stolen from Swiss banks showed… – Continue reading
MUMBAI: The Mumbai bench of the tax tribunal has clarified that additional tax liability cannot be claimed from competitive industries in the name of location savings arising out of the country’s low-cost manufacturing base. The ruling may benefit pharmaceutical, auto, IT and IT-enabled companies, among others, that are engaged in… – Continue reading
New Delhi, Feb. 4: The notification of a social security deal with Norway – often called totalisation agreements — may pave the way for a similar pact with the US that has been hanging fire for a decade. Under the pact, employees sent by Indian firms to Norway on a… – Continue reading
Negotiations over the India-United States nuclear deal continued until “Air Force One landed in Delhi” carrying President Barack Obama. According to sources, the nuclear deal and other agreements announced during Mr. Obama’s visit to India for Republic Day were being finalised right down to the moment his plane touched down…. – Continue reading
VADODARA: Ahead of the first Budget of Prime Minister Narendra Modi led NDA government, Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF) that markets Asia’s largest milk brand — Amul — has demanded that the dairy sector be considered at par with the agriculture sector. GCMMF — the apex body of all… – Continue reading
Time is ticking for India to sign its inter-governmental agreement (IGA) with the US under the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) after it received a one month extension on the original December 31 deadline. President Obama’s visit to India last week fuelled speculation that the IGA could be signed… – Continue reading
New Delhi: Multinational companies operating in India will soon have to disclose details of their operations at the country of residence and their revenue income to the Income Tax authorities. The Budget for 2015-16 may contain provisions relating to the Global Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) rules, which are… – Continue reading
India and US reach common ground on Mutual Agreement Procedure (“MAP)” and break new ground on Advance Pricing Agreements (“APA”) Suchint Majmudar Just ahead of Obama’s momentous R-Day visit to India, the Competent Authorities of India and US reached a landmark breakthrough in cases involving mutual agreement procedure under the… – Continue reading
NEW DELHI: Multinational companies operating in India will soon have to disclose details of their operations at the country of residence and their revenue income to the Income Tax authorities. The Budget for 2015-16 may contain provisions relating to the Global Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) rules, which are… – Continue reading
NEW DELHI: Getting tough with investment proposals from tax heavens, FIPB has deferred 23 applications in its last three meetings apprehending “treaty abuse”. According to sources, the Department of Revenue has expressed doubt that a few foreign companies were evading tax by routing their investments through tax heaven countries with… – Continue reading
MUMBAI: The hunt for black money stashed abroad is moving beyond Liechtenstein and Switzerland. Over the last fortnight, at least ten individuals — all from Mumbai and holding shares of companies in the Caribbean tax haven British Virgin Islands (BVI) — have been told by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to… – Continue reading
The IRS recently announced an expansion of the list of banks and advisors that trigger the highest penalty bracket within its Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program. The addition of Sovereign Management & Legal, Ltd. and Bank Leumi to the increased penalty list will have repercussions in Asia, Israel and the United… – Continue reading
NEW DELHI: Transfer pricing litigations involving Multi National Companies (MNCs) has to be looked at separately and individually and final decision on cases will be taken on merit, Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha said. “You cannot generalise in that regard because every case has to be look at… – Continue reading
The Maldives’ biggest bank is opening a Shari’ah-compliant unit, a move the government sees aiding its goal of becoming South Asia’s offshore Islamic finance hub. Bank of Maldives Plc began offering retail deposits that comply with the religion’s ban on interest on 22 January to be followed by finance for… – Continue reading
London is a global haven for criminal financial activity – with billions of pounds laundered through British banks each day, according to the head of the UK’s National Crime Agency. “Many hundreds of billions of pounds of criminal money is almost certainly laundered through UK banks and their subsidiaries each… – Continue reading
MUMBAI: In what will be widely perceived as a sentiment booster for investors, the government has asked the I-T department to apply the principle behind a tax ruling involving Vodafone Group to all similar transfer pricing cases, an official letter seen by Reuters showed. Reacting to the news, Dinesh Kanabar of KPMG India told ET Now,… – Continue reading
In a move that will likely soothe investors’ frayed nerves, the government on Wednesday decided not to appeal a Bombay High Court ruling in favour of Vodafone in a Rs. 3,200-crore tax dispute over a share transaction involving a local subsidiary. IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said the government wants… – Continue reading
MUMBAI: The Reserve Bank has exempted Regional Rural Banks with assets less than USD 175 million to register with the US Internal Revenue System under FATCA. It also said that if RRBs, taken together with related entities, do not have assets over USD 500 million, they need not register with… – Continue reading
NEW DELHI: PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Tuesday asked the government to implement the General Anti Avoidance Rules (GAAR) from April 1, 2016 instead of April this year. The government had earlier proposed imposing GAAR from April 1, 2015, for those claiming tax benefit of over Rs 3… – Continue reading
INTRODUCTION The Hon’ble High Court of Bombay has recently in the case of an Indian unit of Royal Dutch Shell Plc, categorically held that issuance of shares by an Indian Company to its foreign parent is not exigable to transfer pricing provisions as there is no income arising there from…. – Continue reading
US sanctions on companies in third countries, ease of doing business and intellectual property rights were among a dozen issues that figured at the India-US CEO Forum where US President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Narendra Modi were also present. US sanctions on companies in third countries, ease of doing… – Continue reading
Fatca registration, which is mandatory, could reveal technical violations of three other American laws, with penal consequences The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (Fatca) might be a bigger headache for the Rs 11 lakh-crore-mutual fund (MF) sector than earlier believed. Fatca is an American legislation, under which financial institutions (FI)… – Continue reading
This edition of the Tax-News monthly feature takes in noteworthy events in the international tax arena, including attempts to inject new life into the campaign for comprehensive tax reform in the United States, and developments in the areas of free trade, indirect taxation, BEPS and tax transparency and compliance. US… – Continue reading
BENGALURU: US President Barack Obama’s visit to India could help unlock over $10 billion stuck in tax disputes between India and various countries. The move will largely benefit American technology companies as a big chunk of the disputes involve software development and IT-enabled services (ITeS) sectors. India’s competent authority Akhilesh… – Continue reading
BENGALURU: US President Barack Obama’s visit to India could help unlock over $10 billion stuck in tax disputes between India and various countries. The move will largely benefit American technology companies as a big chunk of the disputes involve software development and IT-enabled services (ITeS) sectors. India’s competent authority Akhilesh… – Continue reading
The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) is a new chapter in the US Internal Revenue Code. Chapter 4 was added by the Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment (HIRE) Act. It seeks to identify US taxpayers having accounts at foreign financial institutions (FFIs) and attempts to enforce reporting of those… – Continue reading
NEW DELHI: The government may prosecute those accused of evading taxes under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) as part of a wide ranging crackdown on black money. Further, non-declaration of foreign bank accounts and assets may also be made a criminal offence, according to people who have been… – Continue reading
New Delhi, Jan. 23: India and the US have failed to make much progress in the totalisation pact that addresses the the problem of the double payment of social security taxes by Indian software professionals in America, dampening expectations surrounding President Barack Obama’s visit this weekend. Top officials said discussions… – Continue reading
Industry body Assocham has urged the Government to clarify that MAT will not be levied on foreign companies that do not have any branch or a permanent establishment in India. Such a clarification is needed for incomes sourced out of India by such foreign companies, the chamber said in a… – Continue reading
The Supreme Court on Thursday asked the Bombay High Court to decide the appeal of Vodafone India Services’, the Indian arm of Vodafone Group Plc, on merits and without being influenced by its earlier findings in a case related to R8,500-crore transfer-pricing tax dispute. A bench headed by justice AR… – Continue reading
The income tax department has moved the Supreme Court seeking directions to a tax tribunal to consider certain facts relating to the taxable income of Vodafone India Services for the 2007-08 fiscal. This relates to the sale of its calls centre business and an alleged exercise of call options in… – Continue reading
India has worked out a bilateral tax agreement with the United States, which could be signed during U.S. President Barack Obama’s visit, that would boost foreign investment and ease investors’ concerns raised by high profile cases against Vodafone and Shell. The pact, which industry executives say would specifically target the… – Continue reading
MUMBAI: The Reserve Bank today reviewed rules for foreign investment by proprietary companies and partnerships, introducing caps on such investments among other measures. The amount to be invested should not exceed 10 per cent of the average of last three years’ export realisation or 200 per cent of the net-owned… – Continue reading
In the first of this two part article, we outlined what businesses must do to comply with India’s transfer pricing laws, while stressing the key reforms introduced by the new government to bring certainty to the domestic tax system. Here, we discuss if and how India should respond to the… – Continue reading
MUMBAI: UK-based telecom company Vodafone Group will hold its board meeting in Delhi later this month, said two people aware of this. It will be the second such meeting in the country since Vodafone acquired its business in India. The meeting is an “ordinary” board meeting with “routine” agenda items,… – Continue reading
NEW DELHI: India and the US have finalised a framework to resolve transfer pricing cases, some of them pending for five years, in what could end tax trauma for more than 50 American MNCs such as Microsoft, IBM and Oracle by the fiscal year-end and send a strong signal to… – Continue reading
NEW DELHI: Dabur promoter Pradip Burman, whose name has cropped up in the blackmoney list, was today once again stopped from going abroad by a Delhi court which said there was an apprehension that he could flee. Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (ACMM) Devendra Kumar Sharma, rejected Burman’s application saying no… – Continue reading
NEW DELHI: India’s software product startups plan to approach the finance ministry this week to get the ambiguity cleared in this Union Budget on the pending issue of whether software sold in the country should be classified as a product or service. Tax officials have been levying both value-added tax… – Continue reading
The thrust of the Indian government’s economic policy is encouraging, particularly the tax reform of proposed introduction of goods and services tax. NEW DELHI, JAN 20: Germany has made a case for ‘respecting the secrecy’ of any information shared with India for tax administration purposes. This stance assumes significance given… – Continue reading
Voltaire wrote “If you see a Swiss banker jumping out of a window, follow him, there is sure to be a profit in it”. Following this train of thought India is seen to be ruined by a cartel of Swiss bankers, terrorists and corrupt industrialists. Unlimited black money is apparently… – Continue reading
Voltaire wrote “If you see a Swiss banker jumping out of a window, follow him, there is sure to be a profit in it”. Following this train of thought India is seen to be ruined by a cartel of Swiss bankers, terrorists and corrupt industrialists. Unlimited black money is apparently… – Continue reading
Jan 20 (Agencies): The Modi government has decided not to divulge details of the 627 account holders being probed in the black money case. On Monday, the centre filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court asking it to dismiss senior advocate Ram Jethmalani’s petition that seeks details of the 627… – Continue reading
A recent clarification issued to Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs) clarified that fund managers of FPIs who are present in India would not be treated as permanent establishments in India, addressing the concern that the FPIs may be taxable in India to the extent attributable to permanent establishments. An extension of… – Continue reading
A person who earns income must pay tax in the country he earns in as well as the country he resides in. In order to avoid this, India has signed Double Taxation Avoidance Agreements (DTAAs) with many countries so that the income is taxed only once. To claim this benefit,… – Continue reading
NEW DELHI: Top officials from IT, BPO and eCommerce sectors today requested Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to address certain issues related to taxation in the Budget 2015-16, and provide incentives for setting up data centres in the country. They also suggested that the minister look at ways to help in… – Continue reading
With foreign investment, energy security and strategic partnerships at the top of his agenda, the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi criss-crossed eight countries, including the US, Australia, Japan and Nepal, meeting more than 40 international leaders in the first six months of his tenure. Mr Modi is riding high on… – Continue reading
