tax havens

Amidst pressure on the government to tighten the screws on inflow of funds from tax havens, India's foreign direct investment from Mauritius and Cyprus, dropped significantly in 2010-11. While the FDI inflows from all the sources declined by 25% in 2010-11, the drop was steeper at about 33% to USD 6.98 billion from Mauritius. Likewise, the inflows from Cyprus were down by 44% to USD 913 million, according to the official figures. Full Article

Under pressure from civil society to take concrete action on black money, the government today said it has enough tools to deal with transactions arising from non-cooperative jurisdictions and would take action as and when necessary. We have developed a toolbox... We have enabled ourselves to declare (tax havens) as non-cooperating jurisdiction and countries as and when the situation arises. We will take appropriate steps, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee told reporters.. Full Article

The Finance Ministry will conduct a study on the modus operandi of concealment of blackmoney in the country by major business and public sectors and other channels. The study report will be based on the investigation and intelligence reports of the Income Tax department which conducts nation-wide searches and raids in the country to unearth tax evasion and flow of blackmoney. The I-T orders and tax demand notices which were raised after such searches will form a part of .. Full Article

India has begun its search for the trail for money stashed away in secret bank accounts in tax havens, in a bid to get to the source of funds of investors in the firms that were granted telecom licences and scarce 2G spectrum at allegedly throwaway p Full Article

The income-tax department has made seizures worth Rs 413.7 crore during the current fiscal till October, registering a growth of 17.1% over the corresponding period of the last year, which was at Rs 353.31 crore The seizures include Rs 271.9 crore in Full Article

The Supreme Court on Friday admitted a petition, filed by a retired chief commissioner of income-tax, which suggests that a legislation be made to make it mandatory for taxpayers to declare offshore bank accounts while filing annual returns. The premise behind the suggestion is to enable the government to take effective measures to seize wealth parked in Swiss and other offshore bank accounts by Indian residents. Full Article

Finance Minister, Shri Pranab Mukherjee has directed the Income Tax Department to make all efforts to achieve the revised direct tax target of Rs.4 lakh crores. Addressing the All India Conference on Tax Deduction at Source (TDS) here today, Shri Mukherjee congratulated the department on reaching tax collection figure of Rs.2.50 lakh crore by December 2009 showing a growth rate of around 8.5%. Full Article

Amendment of section 90 :-The Finance Bill (No. 2) 2009 proposes to replace the existing Section 90 with a new section 90. The new section 90 is substantially the same as earlier section 90 except that the proposed amendment seeks to empower the Central Government to enter into an agreement with the Government of any country outside India or a specified territory outside India, inter alia, for avoidance of double taxation of income. Full Article