Tax Treaty Comparison Between the United States and India Essay

Tax Treaty Comparison Between the United States and India - Essay Example Due to phenomenal growth in international growth in international trade and commerce and increasing interactivity among the nations, residents of one country extend their sphere of business operations to other countries where income is earned. It is in the interest of all the countries to ensure that undue tax burden is not cast on persons earning income by taxing them twice, once in the country of residence and again in the country where the income is earned. Double taxation can be defined as the levy of taxes on income / capital in the hands of the same tax payer in more than one country in respect of the same income or capital for the same period. The problem gets complicated since taxation schemes of different countries contain divergent notions regarding definition of income as source. The position becomes anomalous in a situation where an assessee residing in one country earns income in another country, and the tax rates in both the countries are higher than 50%. If taxed at both places on the same income the assessee will be left with a negative income. This is bound to affect the economic growth. To avoid such a hardship to individuals and also with a view to seeing that national economic growth does not suffer, Double Taxation Avoidance Agreements (D.T.A.A.) are entered into with other countries. Such tax treaties, therefore, serve the purpose of providing full protection to tax payers against double taxation and thus prevent the discouragement which double taxation may provide in the free flow of international trade and international investment. Besides, such treaties generally contain provisions for mutual exchange of information and for reducing litigation. Coming to specific provisions contained in the Indian Income-tax Act, such tax treaties are made under the provisions contained in Section 90 of the Income-tax Act which enables the Central Government to enter into treaties to avoid double taxation. Govt. of India has entered into DTA agreement with several countries, some of the main countries are Australia, Bangladesh, Canada, China, Germany, Japan, Malaysia, Mauritius, Nepal, Singapore, Sri Lanka, UAE, UAR, UK, USA, USSR etc. Government of United States of America and Government of Republic of India entered into an agreement on Double Tax Avoidance Agreement, which was signed in New Delhi on 12 September 1989. The Convention would be the first tax treaty between the United States and India. In general, it follows the pattern of the United States model tax convention but differs in a number of respects to reflect India's status as a developing country. According to Article 1 of the Convention, it shall apply to persons who are residents of United States of America or India. However in Article 4 (Residence), it is clarified that the person is said to be the resident of the particular Contracting State, if that person in under law of that Contracting State and thereby liable to tax by reason of his domicile or similar other criteria, subject to certain limitations as described in Article 4. Under the Convention the income of the permanent establishment is taxable, and both the profit and loss of the other two businesses are ignored. Under the Code, all three would be taxable. The loss would be offset against the profits of the two profitable ventures. The taxpayer may not invoke the