India

Asia-Pacific

Indian tax officials support proposals to address tax dispute backlog

February 20, 2015

Indian tax officials support several recommendations designed to reduce the large number of tax disputes in the Indian court system proposed by the Tax Administration and Reform Commission (TARC), according to a TARC report released February 20. The report, entitled “Recommendations, Feedback & Way Forward,” accompanies the release of the TARC’s fourth and final report, putting into one document hundreds of recommendations made in . . .

Asia-Pacific

India announces transfer pricing reforms, disappoints on indirect share transfers

July 10, 2014

India’s government will amend its tax regulations to allow for the roll back of advance pricing agreements (APAs) to the previous four years, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced during a July 10 speech outlining the 2014-15 Union Budget.  

The new rules, long sought by international firms, could assist in resolving India’s huge backlog of transfer pricing disputes, permitting concepts agreed to in an APA between the government and a taxpayer to apply to previous tax years.  

Jaitley said the government will also introduce a “range concept” to determine arm’s length price for transfer pricing, though arithmetic mean . . .

Asia-Pacific

India to oppose mandatory arbitration, urge taxation of digital economy at G-20 summit

November 13, 2014

India will never agree to mandatory arbitration and will make its view known at the G-20 leaders summit, reports Shruti Srivastava of the Financial Express in a November 13 article, quoting an unnamed senior official. Srivastva also quotes the official as stating that India “will raise the issue of defining ‘significant digital presence,’ which may include the number of bytes used, number of users, or the value addition done in a country.” The summit begins November 15 in Brisbane, Australia. For more,  see Financial Express.

Commonwealth of Australia
Asia-Pacific

G20 ministers approve progress on BEPS, endorse automatic exchange of information

September 21, 2014

G20 finance ministers, in a communique released following their Sept. 20-21 meeting in Carins, Australia, have expressed approval of the progress made toward completion of the G20 OECD Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) Action Plan and have committed to finalizing all action items by 2015. Further, the ministers endorsed the finalized global Common Reporting Standard for automatic exchange of tax information, committing to exchange of information by 2017 or end-2018, subject to the completion of legislative procedures. Communique. See also, G20 release, prior coverage of BEPS recommendations.

UK formally commits to country-by-country reporting template: The UK has agreed to implement the country-by-country reporting template provided for in the OECD/G20 BEPS recommendations, Financial Secretary to the Treasury David Gauke announced in a Sept. 20 release. See, UK release.

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India disputes binding arbitration proposals in BEPS recommendations: In a Sept. 22 speech before the G20, India’s Minister of State for Finance expressed support for the OECD/G20 BEPS project but said that developing nations had “major concerns” with proposals to introduce binding arbitration into the mutual agreement procedure for tax treaties. See, speech of Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman, India Minister of State for Finance. See, related coverage.

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The OECD and Global Forum announce mandate to assist developing nations with BEPS: The OECD and its Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information announced on Sept. 22 that they have been mandated by the G20 to develop toolkits to support developing countries in addressing BEPS and to launch pilot projects to assist them to move towards automatic exchange of information. The OECD said it will report to the G20 Leaders in November on its plan to deepen the involvement of developing countries in the OECD/G20 BEPS project and ensure that their concerns are addressed. OECD release.

 

 

Asia-Pacific

India signs first bilateral APA

December 20, 2014

India signed its first bilateral advance pricing agreement (APA) on December 19, agreeing with Japan and a Japanese company to aspects of the company’s transfer pricing for five year term, according to a Central Board of Direct Taxes release. The CBDT said that the APA was finalized in about 18 months, and noted that this is a shorter period than most governments take to finalize an APA. See, release.

Asia-Pacific

India’s lower house passes GST bill

May 6, 2015

India’s Lower House of Parliament on May 6 passed a constitutional amendment bill to introduce a GST to replace several local and central taxes and thus simplify India’s indirect tax regime. Moreover, during Lok Sabha debate, Finance . . .

OECD
Asia-Pacific

OECD holds Asia-Pacific regional meeting on BEPS

February 16, 2015

Tax officials from 21 Asia Pacific countries and organizations attended an OECD regional network meeting on base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) designed to give more nations a voice in the development of OECD/G20 base erosion profiting shifting (BEPS) plan output. The meeting, held February 12–13 in Seoul, also . . .

Asia-Pacific

Indian government introduces consitutional amendement for goods and services tax

December 21, 2014

The Indian government on December 19 introduced a constitutional amendment in the Lok Sabha, India’s lower house of parliament, to pave the way for the introduction of a goods and services (GST) tax. The GST would be a simplification measure, replacing numerous taxes levied by individual states, including VAT, entertainment tax, octroi, entry tax, luxury tax, and purchase tax on goods and services. See, Economic Times, The Indian Express, The Times of India, Tax Guru.