Earlier this month, the author of this blog was at the IFA UK branch meeting where experts assembled to discuss certain interpretational aspects concerning the BEPS Multilateral Instrument (BEPS MLI) from a UK perspective. Most of these issues would have relevance in other jurisdictions too (including India) as more and more countries ratify the BEPS…
The Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (hereinafter referred to as the “Tribunal”), Mumbai delivered a landmark judgment in the case involving two parties namely, Elsevier Information Systems Gmbh and Dy. Commissioner of Income Tax. Recently, the Tribunal held that the subscription fees charged by the taxpayer for access to an online database is in the nature…
BEPS Action Plan 6 observes that corporations are misusing Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement (DTAA) provisions by indulging in treaty shopping. A typical example of treaty abuse that BEPS Action Plan 6 seeks to counter is that of an American corporation entering the Indian market through Mauritius because of the favourable India-Mauritius DTAA. An intermediary mailbox…
I wrote in my last blog that despite its impact, corporate tax avoidance is one of the lesser debated issues in India. This is what I wrote: “Multinational tax avoidance has almost never made it to the front pages of popular Indian newspapers and has never been discussed on primetime TV news debates. That corporate…
There has been much brouhaha about equalization levies in the context of the digital economy. One of the hotly debated issues is whether such levies are covered by tax treaties at all. In this post, I should like to reflect over this issue as objectively as possible. I shall not, however, delve into issues of…
Taxation of the digital economy is one of the more difficult and contentious issues in international taxation. There are several strands to this complexity. One strand is profit attribution for enterprises trading across different tax jurisdictions. Yet, several countries have introduced or propose to introduce a tax on MNEs in the digital sector known as…
In 1789, Benjamin Franklin wrote in a letter to French scientist Jean-Baptiste Leroy: “Our new Constitution is now established, and has an appearance that promises permanency; but in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” Franklin was right then and he is right now. However, there is one more commonality…
