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Recent negotiations between the Competent Authorities (CAs) of India and the USA under Article 27 of the India-US tax treaty (Tax treaty), which deals with the Mutual Agreement Procedure (MAP), provides for a dispute resolution mechanism where the CAs shall endeavor by mutual agreement to resolve the situation of taxpayers subject to taxation not in accordance with the provisions of the Tax Treaty.
The Finance Ministry has decided to arm its tax authorities with exhaustive financial and personal data of Indian residents who use the exemption clauses under the Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement (DTAA) and escape paying taxes in one of the countries. The ministry will request countries, including the US and Switzerland to supplement their data on Indian residents with PAN card information and other vital details.
The sectoral regulator Irda today said it has finalised the IPO guidelines for insurance companies and has referred the same to the capital markets watchdog Sebi for final approval which is expected soon.”We are expecting the guidelines shortly. We have given our observations. The matter is currently with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi),” Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (Irda) chairman J Harinarayan told PTI.
The Employees Provident Fund (EPF) is expected to retain the interest rate for its six crore account holders at 8.5 per cent in 2010-11, with a formal announcement likely to be made in August.”I hope that the recommendation of 8.5 per cent by the Finance and Investment Committee of the EPFO will be retained,” Central Provident Fund Commissioner S Chatterjee told PTI.
Builders are all set to legally challenge the imposition of the service tax levied by the Centre on flats under construction. The Maharashtra Chamber of Housing Industry (MCHI), which has leading developers as its members, is considering filing a writ petition in the court against the service tax, which has been imposed since July 1.
Opposing the government’s decision to levy service tax on rentals, several retailers and multiplexes across cities have obtained stay orders against the move from their respective high courts over the last one month. The Union Budget for 2010-11 had brought the rental income from immovable property under the purview of service tax with retrospective effect from June 1, 2007 by treating the renting of immovable property as a service.
The rebate will also be allowed for bonds issued by Industrial Finance Corporation of India, Infrastructure Development Finance Company and any other non-banking finance company classified as an infrastructure finance company. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) recently classified L&T Infrastructure as an infrastructure finance company.
The recent imposition of service tax on residential properties will have only a minimal impact on the demand for residential properties in the real estate sector as most buyers in the market are end-users than investors. This service tax of 10.3 per cent on 25 per cent of the home value, which will translate into a close to 2.6 per cent of the home value on projects under construction, was proposed in the Union Budget of 2010-11.
Although the revised draft Direct Taxes Code (DTC) has suggested the continuation of profit-linked incentives for existing SEZ units and developers, they are likely to come under the ambit of Minimum Alternate Tax (MAT). The revised draft of DTC has recommended the rate of MAT at 2 per cent of the value of gross assets as the final tax. The provision, if adopted, would negate the very objective of the SEZ policy, as the developers and units would then end up paying MAT, based on their book profits, which will be a final tax.
The tax-free infrastructure bonds proposed in this year’s budget will have a minimum tenure of 10 years and a lock-in period of at least five years, allowing lenders to raise the much-needed long-term funds for the sector. The guidelines issued by the government on Friday said that only a select financial institutions will be allowed to issue these long-term infrastructure bonds.
