Indian tax authorities have lodged an appeal in the Supreme Court contesting the February 5 decision of the Delhi High Court in e-Funds IT Solutions/e-Funds Corp v. DIT, reports the Financial Express in a November 5 article. In e-Funds, the Delhi High Court concluded . . .
China’s General Office of the State Administration of Taxation (SAT) in a Sept 15 English-language news release described the contents of a recently issued SAT Announcement “Reporting of Information on Overseas Investments and Income by Tax-resident Enterprises.”
The Announcement . . .
Treasurer Joe Hockey in a Sept. 4 release said that he has asked the Commissioner of Taxation to examine whether location specific profits are being generated in Australia on account of the high prices multinationals charge to consumers and, if so, whether multinationals are appropriately allocating these profits to Australian operations under the transfer pricing rules.
“Australian consumers often pay much higher prices compared to United States . . .
Vietnam and Turkey signed a double tax avoidance agreement during July 6-9 negotiations held in Turkey, reports Vietnam Breaking News.
The Australia Taxation Office (ATO) has released draft guidance on how the ATO will administer and how financial institutions will comply with the FATCA intergovernmental agreement (IGA) between Australia and the United States. Comments on the draft are requested by July 18. Draft guidance
An ITAT ruling, Bharti Airtel, has concluded that a corporate guarantee is not an international transaction under the Indian transfer pricing regulations, according to Vijay Iyer, EY, in an article submitted to the Business Standard
UAE and Norway officials signed an agreement on exchange of information for tax purposes during . . .
Switzerland’s Federal Council on April 29 initiated a consultation on a federal decree which would implement automatic exchange of information in tax matters with Australia. The consultation follows up on a joint declaration . . .
The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) on November 12 released a final taxation ruling which sets out the circumstances under which a taxpayer must disregard actual transactions with a related party and instead use hypothetical arm’s length conditions to determine income and withholding tax. The ruling interprets section 815-130 of the Income Tax Assessment . . .
Vietnam’s campaign against transfer pricing abuse has yielded positive results, the Ministry of Finance said on Sept. 23.
At least 870 Vietnamese enterprises with foreign direct investment have been placed on a “black list” by tax inspectors . . .
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.
The State of Qatar and the Kyrgyz Republic, on June 1, signed an agreement on the Avoidance of Double Taxation and Prevention of Fiscal Evasion with respect to income tax. Release
The UK’s HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) on November 30 announced that it has changed its interpretation of the company residence tie breaker clause in the Jersey-UK tax treaty and in 15 other tax treaties that . . .
Germany had the greatest number of unresolved mutual agreement procedure (MAP) cases among OECD countries during the 2014 reporting period, according to OECD statistics . . .
The Indian government on September 4 updated the procedures that reporting financial institutions must follow to register and submit the Form 61B or nil statement for purposes of complying . . .
India’s Punjab and Haryana High Court on August 26 ruled that Blackstone Mauritius and Barclays Mauritius are residents of Mauritius, and thus may take advantage of the India-Mauritius tax treaty, even though the companies’ only tie to Mauritius was . . .
Thailand’s Cabinet on May 7 approved a draft act introducing new transfer pricing provisions, including documentation requirements, writes PwC in a May 18 report. For details, see PwC.
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.
The US and India remain at loggerheads over the percentage of profit to be allocated to India subsidiaries of US IT and ITeS companies, with US pushing for a 12 – 13 percent rate and India unwilling to go below 18 percent, according to a an April 9 Financial Express article written by Santosh Tiwari. An unnamed official quoted by Tiwari suggested that “the way forward could be to tackle the existing cases at a higher rate and new cases at the rate closer to what the US wants.” Read More: Financial Express
The US Treasury Department has updated its FATCA website, reporting that Azerbaijan and the US signed a Model 1 intergovernmental agreement . . .
“Powerful vested interests will be very upset about this,” Australia’s Treasurer Joe Hockey said, according to a September 7 article by Adam Creighton of the Business Spectator. See: Business Spectator. Related: MNE Tax.
The Chinese government on June 3 announced that China and Indonesia signed a tax treaty protocol that stipulates that the two nations will exempt from VAT aviation enterprises engaged in international transportation with each other. The parties also signed a memorandum of understanding that lists the wholly-owned financial institutions of the two governments which are tax exempt under the treaty. Both agreements were signed on March 26. See, Release.
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 . . .
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 . . .
The Chinese government has finalized administrative measures implementing its general antiabuse rule (GAAR), the State Administration of Taxation (SAT) announced December 12. The guidance implements GAAR rules introduced in 2008, addressing the law’s scope, judging criteria, adjustment methods, working procedures, and dispute resolutions, the SAT said in . . .
New Zealand is considering changes to its tax laws that would tighten nonresident withholding tax rules for interest, improve the quality and usefulness of tax information provided by large corporations, address the taxation of foreign trusts, and implement OECD base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) output, according . . .
Baker Tilly TFW has announced that Loh Eng Kiat has joined the firm tax team as of August 11. release
The U.K. and Tajikistan signed a double tax treaty on July 1 which generally follows the OECD model tax treaty. The agreement provides for reduced withholding tax rates dividends, interest, and royalties and also includes an exchange of information article and an arbitration provision. For the text, see UK/Tajikistan Double Taxation Agreement (PDF 82K)
India’s Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) and Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) should immediately take steps to jointly handle tax service for large taxpayers and should aim to unify their management structures within five years, concluded a report issued by the Tax Administration Reform Commission (TARC),
The comprehensive report to newly…
China will replace its turnover tax on the telecom sector with value-added tax (VAT) effective June 1, the government announced on April 30. “Basic telecom services such as voice calls and bandwidth leasing or sales will be subject to 11 percent VAT while value-added services such as messaging, data transfer and Internet access will be subject to a 6 percent rate. Telecom services for overseas clients will be exempt,” state-run news agency Xinhua reported. See, Xinhuaet
The UAE and Denmark on November 3 signed a tax information exchange agreement (TIEA) in Denmark during a UAE delegation tour of Scandinavian . . .
Pharmaceutical companies could be the next target of an Australian Senate inquiry into tax avoidance, according to a May 22 report by the Brisbane Times. See, Brisbane Times
The magnitude of profit shifting by American companies “may be significant,” a US Congressional Research Service (CRS) report has concluded. The report, released April 30, found that about 50 percent of the $1.2 trillion in overseas profit reported by American . . .
OECD, G-20, and other tax administrator are working together on a project to map of the global operation of selected MNEs engaged in the digital economy, Australian Second Commissioner Neil Olesen said November 28. “In today’s world, multinationals . . .
A tax treaty between the United Arab Emirates and Japan signed on May 2, 2013, will enter into force on December 24 , Japan’s Ministry of Finance announced on November 25. The treaty will apply to taxes withheld at source, income taxes, and other taxes beginning January 1, 2014
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Japan’s Ministry of Finance has announced that the “Agreement between the Government of Japan and the Government of the Sultanate of Oman for the Avoidance of Double Taxation and the Prevention of Fiscal Evasion with respect to Taxes on Income”, signed January 9, will enter into force on September 1.
The agreement reduces withholding taxes on dividends to 10 percent . . .
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