Photo of Meenakshi Ramkumar

Associate in the Tax Practice at the Mumbai office of Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas. She can be reached at meenakshi.ramkumar@cyrilshroff.com.

In its recent ruling[1], the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal Bench at Delhi (ITAT) has reiterated the well-established principles, including (i) validity of Trusts; (iii) use of Trusts to hold treasury shares[2]; and (iii) the taxation of its income as a representative of the beneficiary/beneficiaries under the provisions of sections 160-166 of the Income-Tax Act, 1961 (IT Act). The ITAT further upheld the principle that trustees are to be assessed as ‘representative assessee’ in the same and like manner as beneficiaries and therefore, creation of a Trust is not a tax evasion device as the Trust will have the same tax liability and exemptions accruing to the beneficiary.Continue Reading Trust is Trustworthy, not a Device to Evade Tax: ITAT Delhi

The ripples from the 2008 global financial crisis (GFC) were felt all around the world, causing unprecedented strain on national exchequers and on companies’ balance sheets for several years. The COVID-19 pandemic is expected to cause greater economic hardship than even the GFC or the great depression of 1929[1]. Such events often lead to policy makers pushing for aggressive tax regimes aimed at bulking up national exchequers and tightening of regulatory frameworks to prevent leakages from their economies through tax evasion, money laundering and other such white-collar crimes.

In keeping with the global trend, India has, in the recent past, adopted a very strict approach towards offenses such as tax evasion, money laundering and benami transactions. The current pandemic and its economic repercussions are sure to test the regulatory framework as individuals and corporates alike are tempted to push the envelope. Even prior to the pandemic, the Indian Income Tax department had detected approximately INR 37,946 crore worth of tax fraud in financial year 2018-19 and INT 6,520 crore in April-June 2019.[2]Continue Reading Tax and White-Collar Crimes: The whole nine yards (Part I)