Amendment in resident status of Companies from AY 2016-17

By | December 2, 2015
(Last Updated On: December 2, 2015)

As per the Income Tax act 1961 of India

The provisions of section 6 of the Income-tax Act provide for the conditions under which a person can be said to be resident in India for a previous year. In respect of a person being a company the conditions are contained in clause (3) of section 6 of the said Act. Under the said clause, before its amendment by the Act, a company was said to be resident in India in any previous year, if-

(i) it is an Indian company; or

(ii) during that year, the control and management of its affairs is situated wholly in India.

Due to the requirement that whole of control and management should be situated in India and that too for whole of the year, the condition had been rendered practically inapplicable. A company could easily avoid becoming a resident by simply holding a board meeting outside India. This could facilitate creation of shell companies which are incorporated outside but controlled from India.

‘Place of effective management’ (POEM) is an internationally recognized concept for determination of residence of a company incorporated in a foreign jurisdiction. Most of the tax treaties entered into by India recognise the concept of ‘place of effective management’ for determination of residence of a company as a tie-breaker rule for avoidance of double taxation. Many countries prefer the POEM test to be appropriate test for determination of residence of a company. The principle of POEM is recognized and accepted by Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) also.

The OECD commentary on model convention provides definition of place of effective management to mean the place where key management and commercial decisions that are necessary for the conduct of the entity’s business as a whole, are, in substance, made.

The modification in the condition of residence in respect of company by including the concept of effective management would align the provisions of the Act with the Double Taxation Avoidance Agreements (DTAAs) entered into by India with other countries and would also be in line with international standards. It would also be a measure to deal with cases of creation of shell companies outside India but being controlled and managed from India.

In view of the above, section 6 of the Income-tax Act has been amended to provide that a person being a company shall be said to be resident in India in any previous year, if-

(i) it is an Indian company; or

(ii) its place of effective management, in that year, is in India .

Further, the “place of effective management” has been defined to mean a place where key management and commercial decisions that are necessary for the conduct of the business of an entity as a whole are, in substance, made.

Applicability: – These amendments take effect from 1st April, 2016 and will, accordingly, apply in relation to the assessment year 2016-17 and subsequent assessment years.

Source ;EXPLANATORY NOTES TO THE PROVISIONS OF THE FINANCE ACT, 2015  issued by CBDT on 27.11.2015

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