Tax
India Unleashed: Tax
25 July 2017
Tax
Tax
Yes, the Indian tax structure has all along been very complex and unpredictable owing to a host of factors, such as a multiplicity of taxes, divergent interpretations, the absence of a coherent administrative set-up coupled with unrealistic revenue targets, and a propensity to resort to amendments (including retrospective amendments), by successive governments. In this decade, for foreign investors, the “indirect transfer” of shares case of Vodafone symbolizes all that has been wrong with the Indian tax system. Despite winning at the Supreme Court, the Government in 2012 retrospectively amended the Income Tax Act, 1961 (“IT Act”) to overcome the Supreme Court ruling and to tax indirect transfers involving foreign companies/investors.