tax havens

In a strong message to the critics of the retrospective amendment to the tax laws, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Tuesday asserted India is not a tax haven.India is not a no-tax country, India has a determined tax rate, but it is not a tax haven ... If you pay tax in your country of origin, you don't have to pay tax, if we have double taxation agreement with your country of origin. Full Article

Indians are the largest depositors in banks abroad with an estimated 500 billion US dollars (nearly Rs 24.5 lakh crore) of illegal money stashed by them in tax havens, the CBI director said on Monday. India, in particular, has suffered from the flow of illegal funds to tax havens such as Mauritius, Switzerland, Lichtenstein, British [...] Full Article

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