Section 115-O of the Income-tax Act provides for taxation of distributed profits of a domestic company. It provides that any amount declared, distributed or paid by way of dividends, whether out of current or accumulated profits, shall be liable to be taxed at the rate of 15%. The tax is known as Dividend Distribution Tax (DDT). Such distributed dividend is exempt in the hands of recipients.
Section 115BBD of Income Tax Act provides for taxation of gross dividends received by an Indian company from a specified foreign company (in which it has shareholding of 26% or more) at the rate of 15%.
Section 115-O provides that the tax base for DDT (i.e. the dividend payable in case of a company) is to be reduced by an amount of dividend received from its subsidiary if such subsidiary has paid the DDT which is payable on such dividend . This ensured removal of cascading effect of DDT in a multi-tier structure where dividend received by a domestic company from its subsidiary (which is also a domestic company) is distributed to its shareholders.
It is proposed to amend section 115-O in order to remove the cascading effect in respect of dividends received by a domestic company from a similarly placed foreign subsidiary ( ie the foreign company in which domestic company holds more than fifty percent of equity share capital). It is proposed that where the tax on dividends received from the foreign subsidiary is payable under section 1 15BBD by the holding domestic company then, any dividend distributed by the holding company in the same year, to the extent of such dividends, shall not be subject to Dividend Distribution Tax under section 115-O of the Income-tax Act.
This amendment will take effect from 1st June, 2013.
