Limitation of Interest deduction in certain cases.
A company is typically financed or capitalized through a mixture of debt and equity. The way a company is capitalized often has a significant impact on the amount of profit it reports for tax purposes as the tax legislations of countries typically allow a deduction for interest paid or payable in arriving at the profit for tax purposes while the dividend paid on equity contribution is not deductible. Therefore, the higher the level of debt in a company, and thus the amount of interest it pays, the lower will be its taxable profit. For this reason, debt is often a more tax efficient method of finance than equity. Multinational groups are often able to structure their financing arrangements to maximize these benefits. For this reason, country’s tax administrations often introduce rules that place a limit on the amount of interest that can be deducted in computing a company’s profit for tax purposes. Such rules are designed to counter cross-border shifting of profit through excessive interest payments, and thus aim to protect a country’s tax base.
Under the initiative of the G-20 countries, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in its Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) project had taken up the issue of base erosion and profit shifting by way of excess interest deductions by the MNEs in Action plan 4. The OECD has recommended several measures in its final report to address this issue.
In view of the above, it is proposed to insert a new section 94B, in line with the recommendations of OECD BEPS Action Plan 4, to provide that interest expenses claimed by an entity to its associated enterprises shall be restricted to 30% of its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) or interest paid or payable to associated enterprise, whichever is less.
The provision shall be applicable to an Indian company, or a permanent establishment of a foreign company being the borrower who pays interest in respect of any form of debt issued to a non-resident or to a permanent establishment of a non-resident and who is an ‘associated enterprise’ of the borrower. Further, the debt shall be deemed to be treated as issued by an associated enterprise where it provides an implicit or explicit guarantee to the lender or deposits a corresponding and matching amount of funds with the lender.
The provisions shall allow for carry forward of disallowed interest expense to eight assessment years immediately succeeding the assessment year for which the disallowance was first made and deduction against the income computed under the head “Profits and gains of business or profession to the extent of maximum allowable interest expenditure.
In order to target only large interest payments, it is proposed to provide for a threshold of interest expenditure of one crore rupees exceeding which the provision would be applicable.
It is further proposed to exclude Banks and Insurance business from the ambit of the said provisions keeping in view of special nature of these businesses.
This amendment will take effect from 1st April, 2018 and will, accordingly, apply in relation to the assessment year 2018-19 and subsequent years.
[Clause 43]
Extract of relevant clause from Finance Bill, 2017
Insertion of new section 94B.
43. After section 94A of the Income-tax Act, the following section shall be inserted with effect from the 1st day of April, 2018, namely:—
Limitation on interest deduction in certain cases.
‘94B. (1) Notwithstanding anything contained in this Act, where an Indian company, or a permanent establishment of a foreign company in India, being the borrower, pays interest or similar consideration exceeding one crore rupees which is deductible in computing income chargeable under the head
“Profits and gains of business or profession” in respect of any debt issued by a non-resident, being an associated enterprise of such borrower, the interest shall not be deductible in computation of income under the said head to the extent that it arises from excess interest, as specified in sub-section (2):
Provided that where the debt is issued by a lender which is not associated but an associated enterprise either provides an implicit or explicit guarantee to such lender or deposits a corresponding and matching amount of funds with the lender, such debt shall be deemed to have been issued by an associated enterprise.
(2) For the purposes of sub-section (1), the excess interest shall mean an amount of total interest paid or payable in excess of thirty per cent. of earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation of the borrower in the previous year or interest paid or payable to associated enterprises for that previous year, whichever is less.
(3) Nothing contained in sub-section (1) shall apply to an Indian company or a permanent establishment of a foreign company which is engaged in the business of banking or insurance.
(4) Where for any assessment year, the interest expenditure is not wholly deducted against income under the head “Profits and gains of business or profession”, so much of the interest expenditure as has not been so deducted, shall be carried forward to the following assessment year or assessment years, and it shall be allowed as a deduction against the profits and gains, if any, of any business or profession carried on by it and assessable for that assessment year to the extent of maximum allowable interest expenditure in accordance with sub-section (2):
Provided that no interest expenditure shall be carried forward under this sub-section for more than eight assessment years immediately succeeding the assessment year for which the excess interest expenditure was first computed.
(5) For the purposes of this section, the expressions––
(i) “associated enterprise” shall have the meaning assigned to it in sub-section (1) and sub-section (2) of section 92A;
(ii) “debt” means any loan, financial instrument, finance lease, financial derivative, or any arrangement that gives rise to interest, discounts or other finance charges that are deductible in the computation of income chargeable under the head “Profits and gains of business or profession”;
(iii) “permanent establishment” includes a fixed place of business through which the business of the enterprise is wholly or partly carried on.’.
