[Akshara Rao is a final year B.A., LL.B. (Hons.) student at Jindal Global Law School, Sonipat] With the increasing dominance of the digital economy, countries and international organisations have highlighted the inefficiency of the current tax system in covering digital businesses, which are generating enormous profits from a jurisdiction without having any physical presence. Several countries...
Flip Structure Transactions: Regulatory Implications in India
[Divyansh Nayar is a 5th Year B.A.LL.B student and Arth Singhal a 4th Year B.A.LL.B student, both at National Law University Odisha] Over the last decade, the concept of a “flip” has gained popularity in the venture capital circles, especially amongst Indian startups seeking support from foreign investors. A “flip” transaction is one where an Indian company incorporates a company in a favourable...
GST Compensation Regime: The Covid Reality
[R. Kavipriyan and Pranshu Gupta are 4th year B.A. LL.B. (Hons.) students at NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad] The Compensation Cess Controversy In the immediate aftermath of the Coronavirus pandemic, the Union Finance Minister announced that the revenue shortfall experienced by the States would not be entirely compensated by the Centre, claiming that the said shortfall is on account of an...
Examining the Issues Related to TDR under GST
[Madhura Karanth is a fourth year student at NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad. The author is thankful to Mr. Mihir Naniwadekar for valuable inputs] A Joint Development Agreement (“JDA”) is common in the Indian construction industry. A landowner and a developer enter into such an arrangement, where the developer undertakes to develop the owner’s land. Usually, the constructed area is shared...
The Vodafone Arbitration and the Idea of the Rule of Law
[Nigam Nuggehalli is the Dean, School of Law, BML Munjal University. He is the author of a monograph on international taxation from an Indian perspective] On Friday last week, the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague unanimously decided that India’s imposition of a retrospective tax on Vodafone was in violation of the India-Netherlands Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT) that required the...
Examining the Issues with Free Supplies under GST
[Manasvin Andra is a 4th year B.A., LL.B. (Hons.) student at NALSAR University, Hyderabad] Promotional offers have long been used by companies to draw attention to their products. These strategies have generally proved successful, as they incentivise consumers to buy more of the designated good. However, the tax treatment of these free supplies changed with the emergence of the GST, leading to...
Input Tax Credit under GST: The Misery of Innocent Buyers
[Yash More and Hitoishi Sarkar are II year students at Gujarat National Law University] In 2017, the Indian Parliament introduced the concept of Goods and Services Tax (“GST“). Designed to be a single, comprehensive, destination-based taxation system, it aimed to overhaul the existing indirect tax framework and unify the country in terms of how taxes are collected. An uninterrupted...
India’s Equalisation Levy, Digital Services Trade, and the Evolutionary Approach – Part II
[Ayushi Singh is a 5th year student at National Law University, Jodhpur] As mentioned in the previous post, USA could challenge the equalisation levy and similar digital services taxes for violation of the most favoured nation [MFN] treatment under article I of the General Agreement on Trade in Services [GATS]. Before unpacking the possible arguments for an MFN action, some unique ambiguities...
India’s Equalisation Levy, Digital Services Trade, and the Evolutionary Approach – Part I
[Ayushi Singh is a 5th year student at National Law University, Jodhpur] Multilateral trade relations have suffered numerous blows from proponents of unilateral protectionism in the form of trade wars and economic warfare. The issue of digital taxation has the potential of becoming an additional blow. The United States Trade Representative [USTR] has announced the initiation of investigations...
Permanent Establishments: A note on DIT v. Samsung Heavy Industries
[Pragya Kaushik was a Law Clerk-cum-Research Assistant to Hon’ble Justice Rohinton Fali Nariman in 2019-20 and is a graduate from National Law School of India University, Bangalore] The determination of Indian tax liability of a foreign enterprise is a deeply contentious topic plaguing the Indian tax law regime. It involves a lot of complicated issues, one of them being the determination of...
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