Long accused of being a route for avoiding taxes for foreign investments into India, Mauritius says it has put additional safeguards in place to thwart such wrong perceptions and to boost its image as a preferred global financial centre.
India and Singapore had in 2013 amended the DTAA to help exchange banking and tax-related information more effectively.
India is among 75 countries with which Switzerland's Federal Tax Administration has exchanged information on financial accounts within the framework of global standards on Automatic Exchange of Information.
Switzerland finally signed an agreement to exchange information on potential money launderers and tax dodgers last week but neither this nor a modified tax avoidance treaty is likely to help India.
The SIT found and reported that there was no amount shown in almost 289 HSBC Geneva entries, while 122 of them were repeated twice in the same list.
The Securities and Exchange Board of India's (Sebi's) investigation into the Hindenburg allegations is making slow progress when it comes to obtaining information from overseas regulators, particularly around ultimate beneficial ownerships of certain foreign portfolio investors (FPIs), said people in the know. "Establishing ultimate beneficial ownerships for FPIs is a very complex exercise. "Several jurisdictions allow omnibus structures where the end beneficiaries are not required to be captured or are based in some other geographies.
India has got the second set of Swiss bank account details of its nationals and entities under the automatic exchange of information pact with Switzerland, marking a key milestone in the government's fight against black money allegedly stashed abroad.
The US has been widely criticised for using pressure tactics to secure information from other countries, without reciprocity.
Armed with automatic information exchange pact with the US, government on Thursday asked persons holding undisclosed offshore assets to declare them before September 30 as it would be difficult to hide unaccounted assets in future.
India has been spearheading the campaign at international fora for automatic exchange of information with a view to check tax evasion.
The Swiss Finance Ministry spokesperson further said the treaty states that "such persons or authorities shall use the information 'only' for such purposes.
Mauritius promises India full-cooperation on tax treaty issues.
Both countries have been working on administrative assistance.
India may have provided the fodder to the US tax evasion probe on some clients of HSBC Holdings, with respect to their accounts in the sub-continent nation, according to a finance ministry source.
Modi promised in his 2014 election campaign to recover billions of dollars sent to tax havens abroad to avoid income tax, now about 30 per cent in India
The 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.
After a technology upgrade, the Multi Commodity Exchange of India (MCX) appears poised for an improvement in volumes. The premier commodity and forex exchange reported a loss of Rs 19.1 crore in the July-September quarter (second quarter, or Q2) of 2023-24 (FY24). This was attributed to higher software charges payable under an extended service agreement with 63 moons technologies and a one-off cost towards core guaranteed funds (CGF).
The rumour verification process would now be triggered by changes in price or 'material price movements', as the paper defines it. What this means is that companies would need to verify rumours only if the share price moves significantly.
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The 'in substance' agreement with India under Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act was concluded on April 11, the US Treasury said.
The amendment would help check round-tripping of funds and boost the domestic consumption, Jaitley added
Indians having undisclosed income in the United States (US) may face proceedings under Black Money (Undisclosed Foreign Income and Assets) and Imposition of Tax Act, 2015, this financial year. Also, those named in global leaks may be searched, show-caused, and prosecuted, according to the FY23 internal action plan of the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT). The CBDT has rolled out an aggressive target and timeline to investigate tax evasion matters, especially those involving undisclosed foreign assets.
Penalties for non-disclosure or inaccurate disclosure of these details can be severe.
Against estimates of black wealth of Rs 300 lakh crore and black money in cash of Rs 3 lakh crore by economist Arun Kumar, the PMGKY numbers fall short by a huge margin.
Disclose foreign assets, redesignate NRO a/c and open a Resident Foreign Currency a/c to park forex earnings
Many requests are pending with the Swiss authorities.
Mihir Tanna, Associate Director, S K Patodia & Associates, answers your tax queries.
In a major relief to Indian information technology (IT) companies operating in Australia, Canberra has agreed to amend its domestic laws to stop taxing offshore income of such Indian companies, as part of the free trade deal inked. This may lead to savings up to $200 million each year for over 100 Indian IT companies operating in Australia. "The Government of Australia has agreed to amend the domestic taxation law to stop the taxation of offshore income of Indian firms providing technical services to Australia. "This will resolve the issue that the Indian government has raised about the double taxation avoidance agreement (DTAA) between the two governments for the avoidance of double taxation and the prevention of fiscal evasion with respect to taxes on income," said a commerce ministry official.
To curb the black money problem, Jaitley said that India would be entering into bilateral pacts with Switzerland and other countries for automatic exchange of tax information.
In touch with the Swiss government under the DTAA mandate
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Friday said Switzerland has agreed to share information on Indians having illicit money in Swiss banks on independent evidence provided in each case to the Alpine nation.
India and Switzerland on Monday signed the revised Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement, a move that will help the government seek details about illicit wealth allegedly stashed away by Indians in Swiss banks.
The income tax department is asked to keep names of blackmoney holders under wraps.
Their favourite alternatives: Malaysia, Vietnam and the Philippines. Note, India is missing from that list. And this is despite an attractive financial incentive scheme for OSAT players. The reason, said a senior executive of a US chip company who had a meeting in Taiwan just a few weeks ago, is that "they want more predictability in government policy because they plan to put in big money."
India Inc is staring at significantly higher compliance and governance costs, following the Securities and Exchange Board of India's (Sebi's) latest tightening of disclosure norms and regulations around the filling of key positions, the materiality of information, and third-party transfers. Recently, the securities market regulator amended the Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements (LODR) to introduce a raft of changes that will affect how listed companies go about transparency and disclosures. The new framework will further empower public shareholders and soon move towards a 'comply or be penalised regime or comply or explain' in the case of high-value debt-listed entities.
Switzerland will not share details about accounts held prior to September 2018.
With the Swiss government showing eagerness to help India trace suspected black money hoarders, banks based in Switzerland appear to be losing traction among the wealthy Indian clients and could not get much business commitments during the just-ended WEF summit.
Manish Sabharwal tackles 5 criticisms of demonetisation.
The Parthasarathy Shome committee gives its second reform report to finance ministry.
Modi said the two countries should resume their discussions on Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement.
The instruction is that audit of large units be completed within seven working days, of medium units in five working days and of small ones in three.
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