In Tiger Global International III Holdings v. AAR, the Hon’ble Delhi High Court (Court) addressed the scrutiny of transactions involving tax haven jurisdictions, particularly concerning Walmart’s acquisition of a stake in Flipkart. The Court examined the conflict between the Income-tax Act, 1961, and the Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement.

Recently, the Hon’ble Madras High Court in the case of Nishithkumar Mukeshkumar Mehta v. DCIT, has dealt with the question of taxability of compensation in relation to ESOPs received by the employee at a pre-exercise stage, when the employee had not exercised the options under the ESOP scheme.

In this globalized economy, individuals and businesses often operate across borders, leading to potential double taxation issues, which is prevented by entering double taxation avoidance agreements (DTAA) between various countries. Concepts such as permanent establishment (PE) and “make available” are the creations of DTAA, which have been subject to significant litigation in India. PE means […]

 SAAR vs. GAAR In the words of Indian judiciary[i] “tax planning may be legitimate provided it is within the framework of law. Colourable devices cannot be part of tax planning and it is wrong to encourage or entertain the belief that it is honourable to avoid the payment of tax by resorting to dubious methods. […]

Recently, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has notified the SEBI (Alternative Investment Funds) (Second Amendment) Regulations, 2024 (AIF Second Amendment Regulations), amending the SEBI (Alternative Investment Funds) Regulations, 2012 (AIF Regulations). The amendments aims to provide: (a) ease of doing business and flexibility to category I and II alternative investment funds (AIFs) […]

Corporate transactions and their related intricacies have always been a subject of frequent discussions in the corporate world. With changing commercials globally, there is an innovation in the commercial terms being agreed between the parties. With growing regulatory concerns and rise in tax claims with no certainty, a need arises to protect the interest of […]

Compulsorily Convertible Debentures (CCDs), a hybrid instrument, has gained prominence in the last two decades. However, its classification as equity or debt has been the subject of discussions, mainly due to conflicting perspectives under different laws. This initial divergence surfaced from the framework of guidelines under the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 (FEMA), which deemed […]

The advent of the Digital economy has led to the introduction of various taxation issues. One such issue being creation of a virtual permanent establishment (PE) in a country, where the services are rendered without having any physical presence. The Income Tax Appellate Tribunal, Delhi (Tribunal), recently has dealt with the issue of creation of […]

Obligation (in the hands of telecom companies) to withhold taxes under Section 194H of the Income-tax Act, 1961 (IT Act) on discounts given to SIM card distributors has been a matter of long drawn dispute. Conflicting rulings have been pronounced by different High Courts and the issue has now attained finality by the judgment of […]

A long-standing debate that continues to hold its ground even today is whether investment in a company’s shares can be construed as income and thus liable to tax in the hands of the investee company? Ideally, investment in shares of a company is a capital account transaction and thus, is a capital receipt, which is […]

Indirect transfer controversy has been the most discussed issue in the Indian tax ecosystem. It began when Vodafone International Holdings Ltd acquired an indirect holding in an Indian entity, to the recent ruling of the Hon’ble High Court of Delhi in Augustus Capital Pte Ltdᶦ (dealing with small investor exemption). The controversy has spanned for over […]

The Hon’ble Supreme Court of India (Apex Court) has recently pronounced a landmark ruling[ᶦ]  on treaty interpretation with a specific reference to Most Favored Nation (MFN) clause contained in various Double Taxation Avoidance Agreements (DTAA) entered by India with Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) member countries. The Apex Court ruled that a Notification under […]