Tax Residence Certificate (TRC) must for issue of form 15CB from 01.04.2011
Section 90 of the Income Tax Act empowers the Central Government to enter into an agreement with the Government of any foreign country or specified territory outside India for the purpose of –
(i) granting relief in respect of avoidance of double taxation, (ii) exchange of information and
(iii) recovery of taxes.
Further section 90A of the Act empowers the Central Government to adopt any agreement between specified associations for relief of double taxation.
In exercise of this power, the Central Government has entered into various Double Taxation Avoidance Agreements (DTAA’s) with different countries and have adopted agreements between specified associations for relief of double taxation . The scheme of interplay of treaty and domestic legislation ensures that a taxpayer, who is resident of one of the contracting country to the treaty, is entitled to claim applicability of beneficial provisions either of treaty or of the domestic law.
It is noticed that in many instances the taxpayers who are not tax resident of a contracting country do claim benefit under the DTAA entered into by the Government with that country. Thereby, even third party residents claim unintended treaty benefits.
Therefore, it is proposed to amend Section 90 and Section 90A of the Act to make submission of Tax Residency Certificate containing prescribed particulars, as a necessary but not sufficient condition for availing benefits of the agreements referred to in these Sections.
These amendments will take effect from 1st April, 2013 and will, accordingly, apply in relation to the assessment year 2013-14 and subsequent years.
