Special Bench of the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal, New Delhi holds that expenditure relating to exempt income to be disallowed even if assessee has not earned any tax-free income.
The taxpayer was a company incorporated under Hong Kong laws. It filed its return of income declaring total income of INR196 million. AO noticed that the taxpayer had not offered for tax the amount received toward reimbursement of expenses, which included custom duty and accordingly the income was assessed at INR197.2 million. Aggrieved by the same, the taxpayer filed an appeal before the CIT(A).
Payment of salary outside India to employees of a foreign company who are on secondment to an office, branch, subsidiary or joint venture in India (Indian entity) of the foreign company. The remittance of salary received by foreign nationals whilst resident in India who are employees of Indian companies.
The question whether there should be a system of rotation of statutory auditors introduced to avoid repetition of Satyam episode has been raised in some quarters. In the past, the Government had tried to introduce this system by proposing amendments in the Companies Act on two occasions. However, these amendments could not be implemented as the Parliamentary Committees which examined these proposal rejected them in view of the strong protests from our members and the Institute. Investigations about the role of auditors in the Satyam episode are in progress. The reasons for the audit failure are not ascertained and, therefore, it would be premature to make this episode as illustrative. No definite conclusions can be drawn at this stage and it cannot be said that such episode will not be repeated if we introduce the system of rotation of statutory auditors through any legislation. It is reported that no developed country in the world has introduced this system.
Till today the law on the subject of repairing and maintenance of roads and other infrastructural facilities was clear in the minds of all stakeholders (barring a few service tax commissionerates). There was this discussion that maintenance and/or repairing of roads may be a taxable activity, but a conclusive view came across from most corners that no such taxing is possible because the law itself was clear enough.
The Government has been rightly concerned about the component of black money in real estate transactions and consequent evasion of tax. With a view to curb the said menace and to tax the unaccounted money, the Government has time and again made amendments in the Income-tax Act (Act) by introducing different provisions to tackle the issue.
While in most of the countries in the world, the top executives are trying to survive their jobs and positions and while this is the first time when maximum CEOs are hated by their shareholders, the independent Directors are trying to run away from their current position. One of the reports of Economic Times says that, since Satyam scandal and Nagarjuna case, “there are over 500 independent directors in India who have resigned from their respective positions on the Board citing reasons ranging from ill-health to work pressures”.
In the current times where several MNCs are facing the issue of operating losses (the term ‘operating losses’ for the purpose of this article denotes business losses) in various jurisdictions, it becomes imperative for them to evaluate the provisions on utilisation of tax losses in these jurisdictions so as to optimise the overall tax cost. Considering the above, this article contains a broad overview of provisions prevalent in certain key jurisdictions on utilisation of tax losses. However, it should be noted that there could be certain conditions prescribed under the respective tax laws which may need to be followed before offsetting the tax losses.
‘Corporate Governance’ — these words have been hitting the headlines of financial magazines for quite some years, particularly post Enron, and in India they have once again triggered debates post Satyam scam. Satyam — this word would no longer be used as an adjective to signify the attribute of truthfulness, but will now be used as a noun to signify systemic failure in history of Indian corporate governance system. Satyam story holds within it, legion of myriad hidden lessons for a spectrum of bodies, from directors to investors and from auditors to regulators.
Currently companies are required to pay MAT tax if the tax payable under normal provisions of the Act is lower than 10% (15% w.e.f. A.Y. 2010-11) of the book profit as defined u/s.115JB of the Act. An issue which arises is whether an assessee liable to MAT should pay interest u/s.234B and u/s.234C for shortfall in payment of advance tax.
