International Tax Review

In the light of the announcements such as the Shome recommendations on GAAR, indirect transfers for bringing stability to taxation and an increased need for fiscal consolidation, expectations are high that the upcoming budget will be a positive, but responsible budget with fair and stable provisions.
To find out whether India continues to be an attractive investment jurisdiction and how the provisions may impact global investors, join our expert panellists Rajendra Nayak and Heetesh Veera, Tax Partners Ernst & Young for this web seminar on budget day .

Please join this special ITR Webcast to gather key transfer pricing insights specific to the Oil and Gas Industry value chain. This dynamic presentation, led by Deloitte Tax LLP’s National Transfer Pricing Leaders of its Oil & Gas Industry, will cover three core areas:
•A primer on the O&G industry segments (e.g. upstream, mid-stream, etc.), transfer pricing fundamentals, and transfer pricing issues specific to the O&G industry to broaden the general knowledge base of international tax and transfer pricing professionals
•The rapidly expanding global shale/tight oil and shale gas play and highlight some of the transfer pricing issues inherent in these cross-border investments of oil companies.
•Transfer pricing considerations of intragroup financing that highlights the challenges of pricing cross-border loans in this capital intensive industry.
Given the complexity and variety of tax issues within this industry, this presentation should be the starting point rather than the finish line for all of your O&G Industry transfer pricing inquiries.

While many multinational corporations (MNCs) have informed, well-supported transfer pricing policies and tax compliance documentation, they are often challenged with the day-to-day financial implementation of their transfer pricing policy. Failure to properly address this challenge can result in large year-end adjustments, process inefficiencies and increased tax costs. With increased scrutiny and tighter transfer pricing regulations expected in 2013, how can MNCs efficiently manage their day-to-day transfer pricing implementation, increase pricing transparency, and ensure accounting integrity for their intercompany pricing year round?

In this webcast, Thomson Reuters and Ford Motor Company transfer pricing experts will discuss these issues and provide best practice approaches to minimise risk and maximise tax savings in 2013. This informative session will cover:

• Current challenges and trends in global transfer pricing
• Best practices to effectively implement, monitor, and adjust intercompany prices year round and avoid large year-end true-ups
• Leveraging technology to automate and streamline the transfer pricing process
• The Ford Motor Company implementation success story

What if the unthinkable happened and one or more countries left the Eurozone?

Join us as we trace the footsteps of three hypothetical multinationals, who illustrate very different attitudes toward Euro exit contingency planning and are in different states of 'preparedness.' We will examine the potential impact on their supply chains, financial and legal structure and resulting tax consequences.

By comparing and contrasting their experiences, we expect to learn some key lessons and actions tax directors could undertake now to avoid expensive tax mistakes in the future.

Our moderator, David Gill, will chair the discussion between a panel of Ernst & Young professionals. Helmar Klink and Spyros Kaminaris will look at international tax implications; Craig Mitchell will focus on the supply chain; Mark Minihane will examine the treasury implications, and Cornelius Grossman will look at the legal perspective.
Presenters:
David Gill, Ernst & Young LLP (UK)
Helmar Klink (Ernst & Young Belastingadviseurs)
Spyros Kaminaris (Ernst & Young Business Advisory Solutions S.A)
Craig Mitchell (Ernst & Young AG)
Mark Minihane, Ernst & Young LLP(UK)
Cornelius Grossman, Ernst & Young GmbH Wpg

A proactive approach to managing global transfer pricing disputes can enhance both efficiency and effectiveness. Many countries are therefore adopting advance pricing agreements (APA) programs as a way of addressing evolving transfer pricing issues worldwide — as of July 2012, more than 30 countries allow APAs.
One jurisdiction with the highest rate of transfer pricing litigation activity is India, where a high proportion of taxpayers rely on litigation for resolution of disputes. One obvious reason for this could be the absence of an APA program in India under the current tax law. Realising the severity of the issue, an APA program has been implemented through the last budget amendments.
The webcast will be discussing on APA process, best practices in framing an APA mechanism and update on the recent development in India

The Finance Bill 2012 reinvented the law on service tax by introducing the concept of Negative List Taxation. This proposed amendment, will have a deep impact on service transactions. The concept will cover all services (unless specifically excluded), thereby making most service providers liable to service tax. This new scheme has thrown up a range of new issues, which every business (whether a manufacturer, a service provider or a trader) will need to deal with. And the introduction of the Negative List, before the introduction of GST, leads to significant gaps in relation to generation and use of tax credits. This anomaly will, doubtless, add to the real indirect tax cost of transactions in India.

This webinar is aimed at familiarising taxpayers with the new scheme and to highlight various issues and potential challenges that companies may face the future.

The Indian Budget announcement on March 16 provides an opportunity for the government to give clarity to domestic and international taxpayers on a range of key policies, such as the progress of direct and indirect tax reform. Will the Direct Taxes Code still be implemented from April 1 this year? Or will the government postpone it but extract key provisions such as advance pricing agreements and place of effective management and put them in place now? And what is the government’s thinking on the Supreme Court’s Vodafone decision? Will it introduce legislation to tax similar transactions?

In this web seminar, Ernst & Young specialists and guests will give the insight you need on these issues and the others that will arise in the budget announcement.

Speakers from Ernst & Young India will be joined by Dr. D.K. Srivastava, Director, Madras School of Economics, Chennai

The Supreme Court, the apex court of India, has given its judgment in the Vodafone case covering the taxability of offshore transactions when shares of an overseas company directly or indirectly holding shares of/interests in an Indian company are transferred.

This web seminar will analyse the key points that taxpayers should take from the decision, discuss the effect of the ruling on similar situations in dispute at the moment and highlight the options for companies faced with decisions about these sorts of transactions in the future.

The web seminar will be followed by a Q&A where you will have the opportunity to ask questions of leading Indian tax specialists who deal with these issues every day.

It is uniformly accepted that transfer pricing in India is becoming more and more complex. The tax authorities there often take stands on transfer pricing treatment, especially of marketing intangibles, that are diverse and aggressive, compared to jurisdictions in other parts of Asia and the rest of the world.
In this webinar, experts from Economic Laws Practice and their guests from international law and consulting firms in the US, UK and the Netherlands will discuss some of the recent judicial rulings on marketing intangibles in India and best practice approaches that can be adopted by taxpayers.

Speakers include: Rohan Shah ELP, Ajit Tolani ELP, Marc Levey Baker & McKenzie, Murray Clayson Freshfields Bruckhause Deringer, Steef Huibregtse Transfer Pricing Associates, Steven Carey Transfer Pricing Associates

The attribution of profits to permanent establishments (PEs) is gaining complexity in India, with the Indian tax authorities often taking diverse and aggressive stand on attribution approach. This has resulted in significant tax litigation in India culminating in varied judicial precedents.

Though India has a comprehensive tax treaty network and transfer pricing regulations based on OECD framework, unfortunately the close connection between PE attribution and transfer pricing has not been clarified in judicial rulings in the past, up until very recently when a Tax Tribunal emphasised the need to have a transfer pricing analysis for profit attribution purpose. At the same time, due to lack of concrete administrative or procedural guidance, India’s tax authorities are reluctant or hesitant to consider PE attribution issues based on transfer pricing fundamentals. This results in significant tax risks for taxpayers on account of PE exposure in India.

In this webcast, experts from PwC will discuss some of the recent judicial rulings in India on this issue and best practice approaches that can be adopted by taxpayers to deal with the issue of attribution of profits to PEs.

PwC Speakers: Rahul K Mitra (Executive Director and National Leader - Transfer Pricing) and Ajay Kumar (Executive Director and National Leader - Tax Markets)
International Tax Review: Ralph Cunningham