Friday, March 29

Tag: Tax

Saudi Arabia triples taxes, Cuts $26B in costs amid pandemic
MIDDLE EAST

Saudi Arabia triples taxes, Cuts $26B in costs amid pandemic

Saudi Arabia announced today that it was tripling taxes on basic goods, raising them to 15%, and cutting spending on major projects by around $26 billion as it grapples with blows from the coronavirus pandemic and low oil prices on its economy. Saudi citizens will also lose a bonus cost-of-living allowance that had been in place since 2018, according to the country's finance minister. Despite efforts to diversify the economy, the kingdom continues to rely heavily on oil for revenue. Brent crude now hovers around $30 a barrel, far below the range Saudi Arabia needs to balance its budget. The kingdom has also lost revenue from the suspension of Muslim pilgrimages to the holy cities of Mecca and Medina, which were closed to visitors due to the virus. The new measures are the most dr...
Ohio Becomes the First State to Accept Bitcoin for Tax Payment
USA

Ohio Becomes the First State to Accept Bitcoin for Tax Payment

Ohio, a Midwestern state in the United States has become the first stated that would accept bitcoin for tax payments. With this, now, the businesses in Ohio will be able to pay their taxes in bitcoin — making the state that’s high in the middle and round on both ends the first in the nation to accept cryptocurrency officially. The companies that want to become a part of it simply need to go to OhioCrypto.com and register to pay whatever taxes their corporate hearts desire in crypto. The bitcoin program id the brainchild of current Ohio state treasurer, Josh Mandel and it is intended to be a signal of the state’s broader ambitions to remake itself in a more tech-friendly image. Already, Ohio has something of a technology hub forming in Columbus, Ohio, home to one of the largest ventur...
Visa, Mastercard and American Express May Have to Pay Tax in India
INDIA

Visa, Mastercard and American Express May Have to Pay Tax in India

International payment companies like Visa, Mastercard and American Express now may have to pay around 15% tax on their India income. This may happen as they set up servers locally to comply with a central bank directive on data storage. The Reserve Bank of India had ordered payments companies to locally store data on all transactions taking place within India from October 15. Visa, Mastercard and American Express mentioned that they had taken steps to comply with the regulation. At present, all these companies are out of the tax net in India, as they do not have a ‘permanent establishment’ in the country. The companies work and offer their services here through offices in jurisdictions such as Singapore and store data on servers located in countries like the US and Ireland. As soo...
Soon after the Flipkart Acquisition, Walmart Paid Rs 7,439 Crore Tax
News

Soon after the Flipkart Acquisition, Walmart Paid Rs 7,439 Crore Tax

One of the largest retail player Walmart has reportedly paid Rs 7,439 crore tax on the payments the company made to acquire the shares of 10 major shareholders of Flipkart. Various shareholders of Flipkart including the major ones like SoftBank, Naspers, venture fund Accel Partners and eBay, had sold their holdings to Walmart. On the last date for depositing taxes with the Indian authorities that is on 7th September, Walmart paid Rs 7,439 crore withholding tax on payments made to 10 shareholders of Flipkart. "Of the 44 shareholders in Flipkart who have sold shares, Walmart has deposited taxes for only 10 funds and entities. We have asked Walmart to explain the rationale followed while deducting or not deducting taxes from the shareholders. They have been asked to give a case to case ex...
New Zealand Government Proposes Amazon Tax For E-Commerce
News

New Zealand Government Proposes Amazon Tax For E-Commerce

New Zealand is looking forward to implement a new law that will enable the government to tax purchases such as books, shoes and other small items made online from overseas companies in what will be called the “Amazon Tax.” New Zealand’s revenue minister Stuart Nash announced that the government would work on finding a solution to the loophole in its tax structure that allowed individuals to purchase low-cost items overseas from online platforms without having to pay the 15% tax imposed on goods sold in the country’s offline retails. The new system will levy the same amount of tax on items costing less than $400 and only has to be approved by lawmakers before coming in full effect from October 2019. Several countries are confronted with the same problem as e-commerce companies provide...
Flipkart Wins 110 Crore Tax Dispute, First Such Case Won By Any Company
News

Flipkart Wins 110 Crore Tax Dispute, First Such Case Won By Any Company

The Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) rejected Indian tax authorities decision on Flipkart to pay INR 110 crores on the discounts offered by Flipkart in their capital expenditure account. As per the law, the tax authority targeting and demonstrating how e-commerce companies asked for tax exemption from earnings generated through discounted products, which deduct their taxable earnings considerably. However, the ITAT rejected the request of the tax government amounting Rs 110 crore from Flipkart for their year ended 31 March 2016 tax filings. This is the first favorable ruling given by the tax tribunal on this litigative matter and will certainly give relief to e-commerce companies across the country incurring similar expenditure Rakesh Nangia, managing partner at law firm Nang...
Flipkart Refuses To Pay Rs 110 Crore Income Tax
News

Flipkart Refuses To Pay Rs 110 Crore Income Tax

The income-tax department demanded Flipkart to classify its marketing expenses and discounts as capital expenditure and therefore asked the E-commerce giant to pay the sum of Rs 110 crore as tax demand for the financial year 2015-16 due to a reclassification order on how startups are taxed. However, Flipkart does not look likely to give up Rs 110 crore so easily and are challenging the order by appearing before the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) with the argument that tax cannot be collected from “fictional income”. Nothing in the IT Act mandates that a product has to be sold at a particular price, and revenue not earned (due to discounts grants) cannot be treated as capital expenditure, said Senior Advocate of Flipkart, Percy Pardiwala to the tribunal. The revenue departmen...
This is How Amazon Avoids Tax in America
ANALYSIS

This is How Amazon Avoids Tax in America

Last week, President Donald Trump directed attacks on Amazon in a tweet stating his disappointment that the e-commerce giant does not pay sufficient taxes. Since 2015, Donald Trump has expressed his contempt towards Amazon and its CEO Jeff Bezos around a dozen times on the micro-blogging site. Trump’s disdain towards the e-commerce giant is often attributed to the negative articles written against the US President in ‘The Washington Post’, which is owned by CEO of Amazon, Jeff Bezos. For this reason, many individuals wonder whether the statements made by the US President are accurate or just “impulsive.” In fact, while it is quite hard to believe, Amazon does indeed pay almost no tax at all in the US. It is very surprising that Amazon lawfully avoided all sorts of corporate taxes despit...
‘Share Market is Negatively Impacted by the Union Budget for Short Term’ : Nikhil, Zerodha Co-founder
Entrepreneurs Talk

‘Share Market is Negatively Impacted by the Union Budget for Short Term’ : Nikhil, Zerodha Co-founder

Amidst the buzz of Union Budget 2018, a lot has been said and commented upon by the Ministers, Entrepreneurs and Media Personalities. The issue of how the citizens would get affected by the financial plan has been a food for thought to everyone. While the trollers were busy trolling about the delicate topic;   How Income tax payers watching the budget... #Budget2018 pic.twitter.com/7cNF8XitYX — Broken Pundit (@Brokenpundit) 1 February 2018 As soon as the Union Budget 2018 hit the headlines, the stock investors got worried about the tax that will be levied on their long-term benefits; we turned to some successful stock trading businesses and e-commerce brands like Policy-bazaar, Zerodha, Paytm and Zebpay to share their views on how the recommendations done by the FM would affec...
Tax Department To Eye Social Media Accounts To Trace Black Money
BUSINESS

Tax Department To Eye Social Media Accounts To Trace Black Money

The photos of your Singapore vacations trip or your brand new luxury car on Instagram or Facebook may lead the tax department on your doorstep if you're evasing tax or hold black money. The tax department from next month will begin amassing virtual information to trace such frauds. (more…)
GST is a ‘Good and Simple Tax’ That Will End Small Biz Harassment: PM Modi
INDIA

GST is a ‘Good and Simple Tax’ That Will End Small Biz Harassment: PM Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has billed GST as a 'good and simple tax' that will end harassment of traders and small businesses while integrating India into one market with one tax rate. At an event to launch the Goods and Services Tax (GST) at the historic Central Hall of Parliament, Modi said the indirect tax reform is a result of combined efforts of various political parties at different points of time. GST, he said, is an example of cooperative federalism as the centre and states together thrashed out the new law with consensus. Besides being a transparent and fair system that will end generation of black money and corruption, GST will promote new governance culture that will end harassment at the hand of tax officials. Touching upon initial teething troubles that may be wi...
Impact of GST on Startup and Businesses
ANALYSIS

Impact of GST on Startup and Businesses

Goods & Services Tax (GST) is a consolidated, consumption based tax which will be levied on the supply of goods and services at a national level. It will combine major taxes like excise duty, CST, octroi, service tax, and VAT (value added tax) etc. into a single tax called GST, which will come into effect starting July 1st, 2017. Here are some of the ways startups and other common businesses will be impacted by GST-   Small traders with an annual turnover of up to Rs. 20 lakh won’t be required to register the new GST Act, and with the north-east States, the exemption threshold is Rs.10 lakh. This would save many small scale traders and service providers from undertaking GST agreements and reduce a substantial weight off the shoulders of tax authorities.   The GST in...