Government looks to resolve 100 transfer pricing issues; seeks to sign more advanced agreements

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Due to new regulatory frameworks like Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS), transfer pricing disputes could go up in all major economies

In a significant move towards a more progressive taxation policy the revenue officials have set an aggressive target of resolving about 100 transfer pricing issues by signing advance pricing agreements (APAs) with multinationals this fiscal, people close to the development said.

The government, through the Central Bureau of Direct Taxes (CBDT), had signed a record 55 APAs with multinationals in 2015-16. In all, the Indian government has signed 64 APAs, including 62 in the last two years. Now the government is getting more ambitious and officials are confident about achieving the target.

“We are already working on about 175 cases (APAs), and the target is achievable,” said a person close to the development. “Also, the officers who are dealing with the issue have now got fair amount of experience and work would be faster going ahead.”

Samir Gandhi, partner at Deloitte Haskins & Sells LLP, said, “In last one year, we have seen that the government has been very active in resolving the transfer pricing cases through the APAs. Going forward it is very likely that we will see more number of cases being resolved.”

An APA is mainly an agreement between a tax payer—mostly multinationals— and tax authority— CBDT in India’s case—where the transfer pricing methodology is determined. The methodology to calculate taxes could then be used for an agreed period of time on the tax payer’s future international transactions.

Transfer pricing disputes are mainly related to the calculation of profit made by multinational companies and how they have been shifted to their parent. Many firms have gone to court, challenging the government’s transfer pricing calculations. In July 2012, the government introduced the APA programme, which allows companies and the revenue authorities to negotiate the rate at which tax is to be paid and avoid disputes. Of the total APAs signed last year, 53 were unilateral agreements while two were bilateral agreements.

A unilateral APA is an agreement between the tax payer and the tax authority of the country (CBDT). A bilateral agreement is signed by these two plus the tax authority of the country where the multinational is headquartered.

Industry trackers expect that some more “complicated” APAs would be signed this year. “Going ahead some of these cases (APAs) will involve relatively complex cases/transactions and also application of TP methodologies of profit split and TNMM (transactional net margin method),” said Gandhi of Deloitte. Industry experts said the shift from a time when India was considered to be one of the most aggressive in the world on transfer pricing to the current situation has happened in last two years.

“There are primarily two developments which have happened in last one year in the context of transfer pricing disputes,” said Rohan K Phatarphekar, partner and national head, global transfer pricing services, at KPMG. “One is the government’s agenda of having a non-adversarial tax regime and improving the ease of doing business, which has resulted in lesser amount of transfer pricing adjustments, and the other is the CBDT circular clearly laying out the guidelines as to when a case needs to be referred for transfer pricing assessment which has reduced the overall number of cases picked up for scrutiny,” he said.

Experts also pointed out that the government’s stance on liberal transfer pricing comes at a time when many multinationals face the prospect of increasing disputes across the world. Due to new regulatory frameworks like Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS), transfer pricing disputes could go up in all major economies.

Companies and tax consultants said that not only is the Indian government going all guns to resolve old issues in last one year, but also there has been no major transfer pricing demand as officials did not take an aggressive stance. Currently there are about 650 pending cases in APA, according to a report by Deloitte.

Going ahead, a lot of disputes also set to be resolved due to mutual APAs signed between Indian authorities and their US counterpart. This is mainly because the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has started accepting bilateral APA applications with India from February 16, 2016, the Deloitte report said.

Source:
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/51886742.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst

Forex reserves hit record high at $359.917 bn

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India’s foreign exchange reserves continue to rise to hit a record level of $359.917 billion as on April 8, data from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) show.

India’s foreign exchange reserves continue to rise to hit a record level of $359.917 billion as on April 8, data from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) show.

The central bank data show that in the week-ended April 8, India’s forex reserves rose by $157.40 million from the previous week.

As on April 8, foreign currency assets (FCA), which forms a key component of the reserves rose by $159.3 million from the previous week to $335.845 billion. FCA are maintained in major currencies like US dollar, euro, pound sterling, yen, etc. However, the foreign exchange reserves are denominated and expressed in US dollar only.

The movements in the FCA occur mainly on account of purchase and sale of foreign exchange by the RBI in the foreign exchange market in India, income arising out of the deployment of the foreign exchange reserves, external aid receipts of the central government and revaluation of the assets.

Gold reserves, however, remained unchanged at $20.115 billion. Special drawing rights (SDR) from the International Monetary Fund fell by $0.90 million from the previous week to $1.501 billion.

SDR is an international reserve asset created by IMF and allocated to its members in proportion of the members’ quota at IMF. The country’s reserve position in the IMF, however, fell by $1 million to $2.455 billion.

Source: http://www.financialexpress.com/article/industry/banking-finance/forex-reserves-hit-record-high-at-359-917-bn/237598/

NRIs with offshore bank accounts cannot escape investigation by tax authorities

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Governed by rules and conventions of banking secrecy, banks in Switzerland and tax havens divulge information only after account holders give their consent.

Even NRIs with offshore bank accounts cannot keep the taxman at bay by obtaining quick relief from the court of law. In order to prove their innocence, such persons will have to instruct the overseas banks to share information on the accounts with the Indian tax office.

And, only after the details released by the bank show that the money lying in the account does not belong to the person who has been pulled up (for hiding offshore assets), can he escape the glare of tax officials.

The Bombay High Court recently dismissed the writ petition filed by an NRI — an alleged beneficiary of a trust linked to an account with HSBC Geneva — after she refused to sign the “consent waiver” form to let HSBC share the information on the account. Governed by rules and conventions of banking secrecy, banks in Switzerland and tax havens divulge information only after account holders gives their consent.

The court, in its order dated April 5, said, “In the normal course of human conduct if a person has nothing to hide and serious allegations/questions are being raised about the funds, a person would make available the documents which would put to rest all questions which seem to arise in the mind of the authorities.”

Since the court did not allow the withdrawal of petition, the order is likely to be used by the tax office which is trying to fish out bank account and transaction details from those it suspects to have accounts with HSBC Geneva.

According to the base note that the French government had shared with New Delhi, the petitioner Soignee R Kothari, along with six other individuals and two trusts, are beneficiaries of an account held by one White Cedar Investments with HSBC Geneva; the seven individuals in turn are beneficial owners of the two trusts.

As on 26 March 2006, the account had a balance of more than $44 million. The department had served Ms Kothari a notice to reopen assessment for the assessment year 2006-07.

She has later agreed (in a rejoinder before the court) to sign the consent waiver form with a modification — as ‘alleged beneficiary’ rather than ‘holder or beneficiary’ of the account in HSBC Geneva.

“With this, the Bombay High Court has precluded any alleged holder of overseas bank account from seeking alternative remedy by way of a writ. However, their right to contest any addition of income by the tax authorities would still survive. Thus, while NRIs can prove that they are outside jurisdiction of Indian tax authorities, they cannot wriggle out of investigation by virtue of being NRIs,” said senior chartered accountant Dilip Lakhani. The other six alleged beneficiaries of the trust are Arun Ramniklal Mehta, Russell Mehta, Viraj Russell Mehta, Rihen Harshad Mehta, Naina Harshad Mehta and Priti Harshad Mehta.

The court said that this bank statement if obtained from HSBC Geneva “would reveal and/or possibly give clues as to the source of amounts deposited in the Account No. 5091404580.” “If a person has nothing to hide, we believe the person would have co-operated in obtaining bank statements,” said

Source : http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/51870910.cms

 

MCA21 woes: Government extends filing deadline for stakeholders

by | posted in: Company Incorporations, e-filing of MCA Returns, Corporate Updates | 0

MCAWith stakeholders facing glitches in using the upgraded MCA21 portal, the Corporate Affairs Ministry has extended the deadline for submitting various filings without additional fee till May 10.

MCA21, used for making electronic filings under the Companies Act, is managed by InfosysBSE -0.87 % for the ministry. The upgraded system went live in the last week of March.

“Since the launch of the system, a number of stakeholders have faced issues and representations have been received from stakeholders to resolve the issues including, for allowing waiver of additional fee until the new system stabilises,” the ministry said in a communication.

Considering the situation, the ministry has decided to relax the additional fee payable on electronic forms which are due for filing by companies between March 25 to April 30 as one time waive additional fee.

“If such due e-forms are filed after May 10, 2016, no such relaxation shall be allowed,” the communication, dated April 12, said.

After upgradation to run on SAP platform, MCA21 went live on March 27, and since then there have been some glitches such as difficulty in uploading documents.

On April 6, an Infosys spokesperson had said it was working with the ministry to resolve the “minor teething problems” related to MCA21.

The portal is designed to fully automate all processes related to enforcement and compliance of legal requirements under the Companies Act.

Source:   http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/51843322.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst

ICAI issues stricter guideline for CAs

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Putting in place a stricter compliance mechanism, chartered accountants apex body ICAI has barred members from participating in tenders for assignments that can be performed only by CAs. However, ICAI members can participate in such tenders if the minimum fee for the assignment has been prescribed by the entity concerned. The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) has said a practising member “shall not respond to any tender issued by an organisation or user of professional services in areas of services which are exclusively reserved for chartered accountants, such as audit and attestation services”. According to the institute, the restriction would not be applicable in instances where the minimum fee of the assignment is prescribed in the tender document itself. CAs would be free to participate in the tenders where “areas are open to other professionals along with the chartered accountants”, a recent ICAI notification said. Members can avail the multipurpose empanelment data available with it in cases where the assignments mentioned in the tender can be done only chartered accountants, the institute said in a separate communication posted on its website. Further, ICAI has cautioned that members who violate the guidelines with respect to participating in tendering process would be liable for disciplinary action.

PTI RAM SA

Source: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/icai-issues-stricter-guideline-for-cas/1/641877.html

Lending for small companies is a $300 million business

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While bigger SME lending players like Lending Kart and Capital Float aim to close their next funding rounds, a slew of smaller players have emerged in the last year viewing the space as a segment where at least 10 strong players can coexist.

Amongst the new players, Puneet Dalmia-backed CoinTribe, which was launched in February, uses a proprietary algorithm to link up multiple data sources ranging from the credit bureau to social media determining the credit worthiness of an SME within minutes. The startup has tied up with private sector banks that use their platforms to process SME loans.

“Our ticket size for loans range between Rs 30,000 to Rs 20 lakh. We offer an interest rate of 13-18% and receive upto 30 applications on a daily basis,” said Amit Sachdev, cofounder at CoinTribe. The fintech player has an acceptance rate ranging between 25 and 30% for all of its applicants.

Tracxn Labs-backed LoanZen has not tied up with any banking partners yet and focuses on disbursing its loans from the capital raised in its first round. The startup, which claims that it receives up to 20 applications daily, offers loans up to Rs 10 lakh at an interest rate, ranging between 18 to 24%.

“We aim to complete the credit risk evaluation in a matter of minutes and disburse loans within 3 days. Since sectors like kirana stores and budget hotels cannot avail of loans from traditional banks, there is a lot of room for several players to emerge in this space,” said Madhu Sudhan, cofounder of LoanZen. The startup uses an artificial intelligence-based system to carry out the credit risk evaluation and looks at parameters like bank, taxation and accounting data. LoanZen claims to have disseminated loans up to Rs 50 lakh in the month of March.

According to Gaurav Hinduja, the co-founder of Capital Float, SME lending is a very deep vertical in India, despite banks and NBFC’s lending approximately $150 billion to this sector.

The unmet need is still over $300 billion and at least 20% of this can be tapped by new age tech lenders.

“It’s definitely not a winner take all market and we will see several startups attacking different niches in the market. We are likely to see at least 10x growth in fintech alternate lenders. There will also be a growing number of interesting partnerships between institutions and new fin tech lenders,” added Hinduja. Abhishek Goyal, the founder of Tracxn, believes that despite several players entering the SME lending sector, few will survive the current funding climate.

Source: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/51818398.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst