Meredith McBride in Hong Kong Mitsubishi Corporation India’s victory over the Indian tax authorities in the New Delhi Tax Tribunal on the use of the Berry ratio (gross margin divided by operating expenses) sets important precedents for transfer pricing litigation in India, advisers believe, because it legitimises the use of… – Continue reading
MUMBAI: Parent HDFC will pare its stake in HDFC Bank to create room for foreign investors. HDFC, the country’s oldest mortgage lender which owns 22.5 per cent in HDFC Bank, will not step in as a buyer when the bank issues shares to local and foreign investors to raise Rs… – Continue reading
Order relates to the issuance of 870 mn shares by Shell India to an overseas group entity, Shell Gas, in March 2009 Mumbai: The Bombay high court on Tuesday ruled in favour of the Indian subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell Plc in connection with two transfer-pricing adjustments made by the… – Continue reading
Narendra Modi talked of black money, which is an issue at home, and linked it to terror finance — something that worries Western governments The G20, world-weary political and economic observers would say, has outlived its use and that it has become a talking shop like the G8 and then… – Continue reading
There are two ways to approach a G20 summit. One is to seek to provide solutions to major international problems affecting the global economy and get other countries to sign up for them. The other is to go with a largely domestic agenda and tomtom it, but in large part… – Continue reading
A publication in the Economic Times has caused much debate in India since after blacklisting Cyprus for not sharing information on tax evaders, India is now looking to take away the favourable tax treatment available to investors from the European tax heaven under the bilateral tax treaty between the two… – Continue reading
New Delhi: Telecom operator Reliance Jio Infocomm has arranged credit facilities worth $1.5 billion with lenders, including Bank of America and Barclays, to refinance existing loans. Mukesh Ambani-led RJio would utilise the latest credit arrangements to re-finance debt tied up by it in 2010. The new loan facilities are guaranteed… – Continue reading
Apex industry body ASSOCHAM has urged the Centre to amend the Indian income-tax law so as not to introduce the general anti avoidance rules (GAAR) from assessment year 2016-17 as India’s economy is neither mature enough to stand up to its exacting standards nor is the tax administration ready to… – Continue reading
The venture seed fund has already announced 14 investments in India. Impact investor Unitus Seed Fund (USF) has announced that its India-focused offshore fund vehicle has received commitments from Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, besides Concur Technologies’ CEO Steve Singh and Diego Piacentini, SVP (international consumer business) at Amazon.com Inc. It… – Continue reading
MUMBAI: In the first ever ruling relating to taxation of black money stashed in overseas tax havens, the Mumbai bench of the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) has given the taxman a lot to cheer. Funds aggregating $2.4 million (Rs 11.73 crore approximately) as of December 31, 2001, held in… – Continue reading
To help in its efforts to crack down on suspected black money stashed abroad, India has entered into an information exchange pact with Saint Kitts and Nevis, a two-island Carribean country, perceived as a safe haven for offshore funds. The agreement was signed by India’s Permanent Representative to the UN… – Continue reading
Indian economy is expected to see an average growth of 6.7 per cent over the 2015-19 period and a further boost would depend on reform plans of the government, says a report. However, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) on Thursday also said India and China face significant… – Continue reading
In what should come as a boost for the new Narendra Modi government, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) says India is the “only major economy” that is projected to see a pick-up in growth momentum. The Paris-based think-tank saw mixed trends for the developed world, according to… – Continue reading
A court here has granted bail in an alleged tax evasion case to Pradip Burman, one of the promoters of Dabur India whose name has figured in the list given by the Centre to the Supreme Court on the black money issue. Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Devender Kumar Sharma Monday… – Continue reading
KOCHI: Minister for Non-Resident Keralites Affairs (NORKA) K C Joseph has urged the Central Government to withdraw the service tax imposed on foreign remittances as it would impact the hard-earned savings of non-resident Keralites (NRKs). In a letter sent to Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, he said that the NRKs… – Continue reading
Mitsui, Toyota and Marubeni are likely to be among Japanese companies that would sign the first set of bilateral advance-pricing agreements (APA) with India shortly. These agreements will provide certainty to Japanese multinational firms operating in India and avoid conflicts over sharing of taxes between India and that country. Two… – Continue reading
New Delhi: Absence of criminal legal treaties between India and tax haven nations have been cited by probe agencies working in the SIT on black money as one of the major impediments in initiating steps to bring back illegal funds stashed abroad by Indians. These agencies, including the Central Board… – Continue reading
India will soon put its signature on an agreement for exchange of information to curb tax evasion after refusing to sign the multilateral pact along with 51 nations in Berlin last month. Finance Ministry officials told Deccan Herald that the government was currently in the process of completing the internal… – Continue reading
India will soon put its signature on an agreement for exchange of information to curb tax evasion after refusing to sign the multilateral pact along with 51 nations in Berlin last month. Finance Ministry officials told Deccan Herald that the government was currently in the process of completing the internal… – Continue reading
BJP today accused Congress leaders of generating black money in the country while referring to the matter of the alleged tax evasion by its spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi and asked Congress President Sonia Gandhi to clarify on the issue. “The issue of Singhvi is just a sample as it is only… – Continue reading
With the change in government in India, the world is looking up to its new Prime Minister Narendra Modi to revive the country’s economy, who recently launched his flagship ‘Make in India’ campaign to propel the country into top 50 of World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business rankings by 2016…. – Continue reading
Prime Minister Narendra Modi would attend the G-20 summit later this week where world leaders would come together for discussing issues including automatic exchange of tax information, taxation of large companies operating digitally, and a comprehensive strategy for strong, sustainable and balanced growth. Official sources said that the leaders will… – Continue reading
MUMBAI: Five years after Germany gave New Delhi a list of Indians with secret bank accounts in the Alpine tax haven Liechtenstein, the first tribunal ruling has gone in favour of the government. The case pertains to three Kolkata-based individuals – Mohan Manoj Dhupelia, Ambrish Manoj Dhupelia and Ms Bhavya… – Continue reading
India, keen to go ahead with a global tax pact to curb tax avoidance by companies, is expected to push for negotiations of some provisions of the OECD’s Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) agreement at the meeting of heads of states of G20 nations to be held in Brisbane… – Continue reading
The I-T department had said Vodafone India under-priced shares in a rights issue to its parent. The tax demand was for the two financial years ended March 2011 The finance ministry is yet to decide on filing an appeal against the Bombay High Court order of October 10 in favour… – Continue reading
Vivek Prasad, chief commissioner of Income-Tax – III, Mumbai said they were striving to rid themselves of the unwarranted epithet of ‘tax terrorists,’ and said with regards to tax morality, base erosion, profit shifting and GAAR (general anti-avoidance rules) they were on a learning curve and are evolving beyond the… – Continue reading
A slew of regulatory changes including Companies Act 2013, GST and Transfer Pricing (TP) are likely to redefine the role of chief financial officers (CFOs) according to a report unveiled by KPMG in India and CII. The report titled ‘Playing to Win in a VUCA Environment’ was unveiled at the… – Continue reading
NEW DELHI: India’s attempts to amend tax treaties with countries such as Mauritius may have drawn a blank so far, but its efforts are about to get a huge boost with several nations getting together to ramp up work on a global convention to plug treaty abuse. “Multilateral convention will… – Continue reading
Aparajita Basak, the manager, of research analytics, innovation and knowledge centre at Frost & Sullivan, talks about the use of tax havens across the world for Indian black money. What kind of role do tax havens play in black money in terms of Indian companies and individuals? Across the world,… – Continue reading
New Delhi: The total amount of black money deposited in foreign banks by Indians is unknown. Some reports claim a total exceeding US$1.4 trillion are stashed in Switzerland.[1] Other reports, including those reported by Swiss Bankers Association and the Government of Switzerland, claim that these reports are false and fabricated,… – Continue reading
Delhi Tribunal holds that the mere fact that one of the steps in a transaction resulted in capital loss for the taxpayer would not make the series of transactions a sham. Karnataka High Court holds that shares bought at a premium, and sold at a lower value to individuals (ex-employees… – Continue reading
NEW DELHI: After reaching a significant breakthrough in information exchange on bank accounts with Switzerland, the Narendra Modi government has now turned the heat on European tax haven Cyprus as part of its fight against black money. The government wants to drop a provision in the tax treaty between the… – Continue reading
The global base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) rules, aimed at collecting a fair share of taxes from multinationals operating in different tax jurisdictions, are likely to be finalised by December 2015, a senior finance ministry official today said. “Work on BEPS is moving very fast. If things go on… – Continue reading
The black money brouhaha is turning rapidly into a whitewash special. Part of the first report of August 2014 submitted by the Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the issue of black money stashed in foreign banks reveals very little fire behind all the smoke. It says that… – Continue reading
New Delhi: As it attempts to unearth black money stashed abroad, India today said the Grouping of 20 major economies(G20) of which it is a member is committed to a global response to deal with cross border tax avoidance and evasion. Tax evasion will be a key issue at G20’s… – Continue reading
NEW DELHI, NOVEMBER 6: India has circulated a paper on the issue of taxation of global companies, an issue which will be raised at the forthcoming G-20 meeting in Brisbane later this month. Briefing newspersons on the meeting, Suresh Prabhu, the ‘Sherpa’ for Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the G-20… – Continue reading
The Writ Petition filed by the NDA Government in mid-October consists of two parts. The first part deals with the issue of Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement [DTAA], the information obtained from Liechtenstein through Germany and confidentiality obligations of Indian Government under the said DTAA. I had dealt extensively on this… – Continue reading
On October 27, the Indian government disclosed names of alleged tax evaders to the Indian Supreme Court in an affidavit signed by the Department of Revenue. The affidavit accused some of the country’s top business owners of tax evasion through foreign held bank accounts. This development raises questions over confidentiality… – Continue reading
Vodafone sign in India. Photo: Ishan Khosla. Used under Creative Commons license. Vodafone recently won a rare – but potentially very significant – victory over Indian tax authorities. The Bombay High Court dismissed the government demand for the company to pay 30 billion rupees (about $490 million) for a share… – Continue reading
NEW DELHI/BERNE: Accounts inherited from family members as also from previously-constituted trusts or companies have come to the fore in a big way, as India seeks further details from Switzerland about those suspected to have ‘unaccounted’ wealth parked in the Swiss banks. Hundreds of individuals and entities, including 627 names… – Continue reading
Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Sunday said that the issue over the disclosure of the names of those who have illegally stashed their black money abroad is not a debate over the admission of confidential information but is a matter pertaining to the unauthorized expose of the names in… – Continue reading
Ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s first G20 meet in Australia this month, India is putting in place a cohesive strategy to prioritise issues of development and employment to the top of the agenda at the Summit. According to sources close to the development, the Prime Minister’s Office is keen… – Continue reading
AHMEDABAD: In a crackdown on tax evaders in the period between April and September this year, the Directorate General of Central Excise Intelligence (DGCEI), Ahmedabad zonal unit, recovered around Rs 160 crore as excise duty and service tax. According to officials, more than Rs 300 crore evasion of excise duty… – Continue reading
NEW DELHI, NOVEMBER 2: Industry body Assocham has sought deferment in the introduction of General anti-avoidance rules (GAAR) under the Indian income tax law. The income tax law must be amended immediately so as not to introduce GAAR from assessment year 2016-17 (financial year 2015-16), Assocham said in a memorandum… – Continue reading
It is all about transfer pricing issue which is not unique to India. Still, the judgment of the Bombay High Court of October 10, 2014, in the case of Vodafone India Services vs Union of India, has drawn a lot more attention than it would otherwise have. The main reason… – Continue reading
Given a choice of priority, should Indian authorities be chasing black money in circulation within the country or the illicit billions held in foreign banks? It is a nobrainer. Money whisked away abroad is tiny compared with the unaccounted money within India. Yet, the political system has long been barking… – Continue reading
India today told Mauritius that it will not take any decisions that will “adversely impact” bilateral relations while reassuring the country that amendments to the bilateral tax treaty would be made only after considering the legitimate interests of both sides. This was conveyed by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj during… – Continue reading
NEW DELHI: Former minister of state for external affairs in the UPA regime, Preneet Kaur, figures in the list of 627 names of Indians holding accounts in foreign banks, which was submitted by the Centre to the Supreme Court. Kaur, wife of former Punjab CM and Congress’s deputy leader in… – Continue reading
If the Supreme Court insists on disclosures of all names, India won’t be able to sign any further treaties for exchange of information Vrishti Beniwal | New Delhi November 1, 2014 Last Updated at 00:29 IST India cannot amend its Double Taxation Avoidance Agreements (DTAAs) to drop the confidentiality clause… – Continue reading
The implementation of ‘Transfer Pricing’ regulations needs a relook as most of the disputes on tax from global business community is on transfer pricing, according to the industry body Bangalore Chamber of Industry and Commerce (BCIC) Chairman Direct Taxes Expert Committee K R Sekar. Delivering his address on ‘Transfer Pricing… – Continue reading
