Foundation for International Taxation Conference, 2010: Day One

The Foundation for International Taxation organized a conference from December 2 – 4, 2010 at the ITC Maratha Hotel & Hyaat Regency Hotel, Mumbai. The chairpersons and speakers were nationally and internationally recognized lawyers, chartered accountants and professors.

The oft-discussed Direct Taxes Code (DTC) was the first topic of discussion. Mr. Rahul Garg, Partner PwC, India spoke on the issues involving Branch Profits Tax including on the attribution of profits to the branches of MNC’s in India.

However, what stood out the most in the session was Mr. Mukesh Bhutani’s presentation. He is the Managing Partner and Tax Practice Leader at BMR Legal, India and the author of ‘Transfer Pricing: An Indian Perspective’ published by LexisNexis. He spoke on Transfer Pricing Issues and their Resolution. The highlights of the presentation included issues involving marketing intangibles and he further questioned their non-inclusion in the DTC. He generally took us through Advance Pricing Agreements (APA’s) and General Anti-Avoidance Rules (GAAR’s) and also specifically argued for the inclusion of ‘expert witnesses’ in tax matters.

The session came to a close with Mr. S Mahalingam, Executive Director and CFO, Tata Consultancy Services sharing his experience from the corporate viewpoint, with the audience.

The Technical Session was on International Tax Structuring for Investing Abroad and chaired by Mr. Nishith Desai, Founder, Nishith Desai Associates. The session was marked by country experiences viz. Brazil, Chile, Coloumbia where lawyers analyzed and shared the taxation and corporate laws in their countries. Mr. Sudir Kapadia, Partner Ernst & Young, India was highly critical of the definition of the Place of Effective Management (PoEM) rules that were being included in the DTC. He also questioned the lack of clarification in the DTC on virtually enabled board meetings or e-Board Meetings (eBM). The high spot in his presentation was the test for a Controlled Foreign Corporation (CFC) and his comparison of the Indian Rules with the UK CFC Rules.

The sponsored sessions were a look into the low tax jurisdictions and with that the presentations for the day concluded.