Portfolio investors based out of the US and other countries with which India does not have favourable tax treaties will have to pay a 15 per cent tax on their derivative transactions, after the Budget decided to classify income from all foreign portfolio investment as capital gains.
The exemption from MAT does not apply retroactively.
Debates on changing the name of India to Bharat continue to spark a crisis of identity without answering moot questions that stare us in the face. Ramesh Menon asks a few of those questions that do not have easy answers.
A survey, with over 3,700 respondents across digital platforms, found that transparent taxation has been one of the most significant initiatives of the government followed by the production-linked incentives (PLI) scheme, equalisation levy and new labour codes.
"At present, there are two main rate slabs under which sa majority of goods are covered -- five per cent and 12.5 per cent -- which will now increase to three (five per cent, 12 per cent and 18 per cent).Will this result in multiple litigations is anybody's guess."
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley outlined the roadmap of the BJP-led Government for the coming months, saying the Goods and Services Tax (GST) will be a "top priority".
The faceless authority has suggested a host of changes in the assessment process following conflicts and practical difficulties raised by taxpayers since the new regime was introduced. On August 3, the National Faceless Assessment Centre issued a set of standard operating procedures (SOPs) to address several anomalies in the regime. The faceless centre, constituted by the Central Board of Direct Taxes, is the nodal authority and works as an interface for the faceless regime.
The government appears serious about its intent to do away with the sore points in the taxation laws.
The crucial hearing on the PILs by a bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud assumes significance in the wake of recent developments in which the Centre agreed to the apex court's proposal to set up a committee, likely to be headed by a former Supreme Court judge, to look into the regulatory regimes.
New government should consider reforming taxation rules.
Court cases likely over interpretation of the new levy proposed in the Budget for digital economy.
The development is expected to pave way for greater transfer pricing cooperation between the two countries, enhance investment flow
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, in his Budget speech on Monday, announced a new dispute resolution mechanism for such companies who are in confrontation with the taxman's action.
India is often viewed as an aggressive tax jurisdiction by domestic and overseas taxpayers, and making the charter as part of the Act may help restore confidence among taxpayers.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Friday said as many as 37,506 tax dispute cases were pending before various Income Tax Appellate Tribunals having a financial implication of Rs 1.45 lakh crore at end March 2015.
The Hinduja group is learnt to have backtracked from making a minimum Rs 8,950-crore offer for Reliance Capital (RCap) - a deal that it had belatedly put forth in December, after Torrent Investments emerged as the highest bidder for the bankrupt firm in the challenge process. The Hindujas' latest move has put Indian lenders, with an exposure of Rs 24,000 crore, in a spot as it was the former's revised offer that led to a call for a second auction and litigation by Torrent, which had placed a bid of Rs 8,649 crore in the first auction. Torrent has moved the Supreme Court and plans to wait for the apex court verdict before participating in any fresh auction. A banking source said there was an informal meeting of a few lenders of Reliance Capital with the bidders - the Torrent group and the Hinduja group on Friday when the latter changed its stand. The meeting of RCap's committee of creditors (CoC) is scheduled for Monday.
Cairn Energy and Air India have jointly asked a New York federal court to stay further proceedings in the British firm's US lawsuit targeting the airline for enforcement of a $1.2-billion arbitral award. The move follows the government enacting a law to scrap retrospective taxation in the country, which in effect will result in withdrawal of the Rs 10,247 crore tax demand on Cairn, according to court documents reviewed by PTI. The British company had won an international arbitration award against levy of such taxes and sought to take over Air India assets when the government refused to honour the award and pay it $1.2 billion-plus interest and penalty.
The CBIC has come out with guidelines on blocking of tax credit by GST field officers, saying that such blocking should be on the basis of 'material evidence' and not just out of 'suspicion'. The guidelines laid down five specific circumstances in which such credit could be blocked by a senior tax officer. These include availment of credit without any invoice or any valid document, or availing of credit by purchasers on invoices on which GST has not been paid by sellers.
The justice delivery system is struggling to cope, creaking at the joints and bursting at the seams. Indian courts have to deal with about 30 million cases with a judicial strength of just about 19,000 judges.
SoftBank-backed hospitality major OYO is planning to reduce the number of shares it aims to sell through public listing because of reduced capital requirements and technology headwinds. This comes at a time when valuations of start-ups, including that of OYO, have taken a hit. "OYO earlier filed papers for its IPO (initial public offering) based on its funding requirements at the time.
Besides Vodafone, several other major MNCs like Nokia and Shell were locked in tax dispute with the revenue department.
Air India has asked a New York court to dismiss a petition filed by Britain's Cairn Energy for seizure of its assets to enforce $1.2 billion arbitral awards against the Indian government, saying the litigation was premature as an appeal against the arbitration award was still pending. The petition by the airline, which is separate to Indian government's plea in a Washington court seeking dismissal of Cairn's lawsuit to seek confirmation of the arbitral award, said the New York district court lacks jurisdiction to adjudicate a "mere hypothetical question" or one that depends upon contingent future events that may or may not occur. Cairn first moved a court in the US District Court for the District of Columbia seeking confirmation of the arbitration award and then filed a petition in the New York court to seek declaration of Air India as "alter ego" of the Indian government and so it should be made liable to pay the $1.26 billion arbitral award.
The department has calculated and arrived at the figure and may raise two separate demands.
Move to address MNCs' taxation woes; UK likely to be the next.
The income tax (I-T) department on Tuesday extended the deadline for filing settlement applications for eligible taxpayers till September 30, as the income tax settlement commission (ITSC) ceased to exist from February 1. This comes amid interim relief provided by some high courts, directing acceptance of applications of settlement even after February 1. To dispose the pending settlement applications as on January 31, the central government has constituted Interim Board for Settlement.
The industry employs about 10 million workforce.
There are about 31,000 pending cases, locking revenue worth Rs 500 crore.
As corporate India gears up to be GST-ready, the ongoing litigation and tax dispute cases are something most businesses are cagey about.
The amendment would help check round-tripping of funds and boost the domestic consumption, Jaitley added
While she primed up spending on infrastructure to create jobs and boost economic activity, Sitharaman did not tinker with income tax slabs or tax rates. Her Budget for the fiscal year beginning April 2022 proposed a massive 35 per cent jump in capital expenditure to Rs 7.5 lakh crore, coupled with rationalisation of customs duty, an extension of time for setting up new manufacturing companies and plans for starting a digital currency and tax crypto assets.
Be mindful that each instrument is governed by a different set of gifting rules and is also taxed differently.
Senior advocate Harish Salve, appearing for the telecom major, informed Justice Manmohan that the company in its response to the high court's August 22 notice has said it is not acceding to jurisdiction of the Indian courts in the matter.
The law officer said nothing remains in the matter after the privacy judgement.
"The underlining theme with which we have been working till now is that we trust the taxpayers and from purely an enforcement agency, we are shifting our focus to being a service-oriented department," says CBDT chairman Pramod Chandra Mody.
Arun Jaitley said he would put the DTC Bill in cold storage.
Banks are auctioning 2,362 properties in next 30 days. The foremost benefit of purchasing a property in a bank auction is that you could get it at a significant discount to the market rate.
In more trouble for Finnish mobile firm Nokia, whose immovable assets were attached in an alleged tax evasion case recently, the Income Tax department is set to issue fresh demand notices for payment of taxes to the tune of Rs 1,000 crore (Rs 10 billion).
The government on Tuesday extended for the third time the deadline for making payment under the direct tax dispute settlement scheme 'Vivad Se Vishwas' by three months to March 31, 2021. As per a Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) notification, declaration under the Vivad se Vishwas Scheme shall be required to be furnished latest by December 31, 2020. However, only in respect of the said declarations made, the payment without additional amount can now be made up to March 31, 2021.
The apex court has settled the long-pending dispute between companies such as Samsung, IBM, HP & others and the tax department.
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