Govt tracks black money havens New Delhi April 14, 2010 The Centre has identified nine tax havens with which talks will be initiated for signing agreements to gain access to information about secret accounts overseas used by Indian nationals to stash black money.
The finance ministry has put in place the legal formalities to start the talks with these autonomous territories, which are known to have liberal banking facilities for attracting foreign funds. According to an official statement released on Tuesday, the government has approved notification of Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Gibraltar, (all British overseas territories); Guernsey, Isle of Man, Jersey, (all British Crown dependencies); Netherlands Antilles (an autonomous part of the Kingdom of Netherlands); and Macau (a special administrative region of the People's Republic of China) as " specified territories" under section 90 of the Income Tax Act, 1961. "The Central government can now initiate and negotiate agreements for exchange of information for the prevention of evasion or avoidance of income tax and assistance in collection of income tax with these nine specified territories," the statement said. The notification of Hong Kong, a special administrative region of the People's Republic of China, as a specified territory for the purpose of Section 90 of the Income Tax Act, 1961 is also under process. Section 90 of the Income Tax Act was amended by the Finance Act, 2009 to enable the Central government to enter into an agreement with any specified territory outside India, in addition to the already existing provision of agreement with the government of any country. Under the earlier law talks could be held only with the governments of other countries while these autonomous tax havens were outside this purview. While India has tax treaties in place with the governments of other countries it has been getting varied responses on its requests for information on secret accounts. For instance, the German authorities had provided useful information on accounts of Indian nationals with the LGT Bank of Liechtenstein. The information from the German tax body was provided under the article concerning exchange of information of the Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement ( DTAA) between India and Germany, he said. The data obtained about the accounts in the German tax haven was forwarded to the I- T authorities for initiating action against the tax dodgers. However, the Swiss authorities on a similar request expressed their inability to share information regarding bank deposits of Indians on the ground that it was not necessary for the application of the DTAA between India and the Swiss Confederation but was required only for the enforcement of India's internal laws. They also replied that such information was not at their disposal under Swiss laws in the normal course of tax administration. Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee has stated that India would start fresh talks with all the 77 countries with which it has double tax avoidance treaties in order to check tax evasion. The government is also pursuing the issue of renegotiating double taxation avoidance agreement with Mauritius. Mauritius, however, had stated that it has some problems in doing so, since it may lose revenue, for which India has assured some compensation. The issue of black money in secret foreign accounts had become a political hot potato as the BJP and the Left parties had raised it during the Lok Sabha election campaign. A petition had also been filed on the issue in the Supreme Court. Under scanner: Govt identifies Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Gibraltar; Guernsey, Isle of Man, Jersey, Netherlands Antilles; and Macau as " specified territories" under section 90 of the I- T Act, 1961. Stern action: The govt can now initiate and negotiate deals for exchange of information for the prevention of evasion or avoidance of I- T and assistance in collection of tax with these nine specified territories. Under the earlier law talks could be held only with the governments of other countries while these autonomous tax havens were outside this purview. Recent hunts: The German authorities had provided useful information on accounts of Indian nationals with the LGT Bank of Liechtenstein. However, the Swiss authorities on a similar request expressed their inability to share information regarding bank deposits of Indians. -- Me on net : > >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> http://rajkumaratthenet.blogspot.com/ http://itronline.blogspot.com/ Virus Warning: Although the I have taken reasonable precautions to ensure no viruses are present in his email, sender (I) cannot accept responsibility for any loss or damage arising from the use of this email or attachment." -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Skorydov MyTaxAssistant Member Group" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/skorydovmytaxassistant?hl=en.
