Making it easy for MNEs

India and the United States have signed an Inter-Governmental Agreement for exchange of Country by Country (CbC) reports filed by Multinational Enterprises (MNEs) in each other’s jurisdictions for taxes.

The Agreement was signed by P.C. Mody, Chairman, Central Board of Direct Taxes and US Ambassador to India, Kenneth I. Juster, in Delhi on 27 Mar 2019.

Bilateral Competent Authority Arrangement was also signed to enable both the countries to automatically exchange CbC Reports filed by the ultimate parent entities of MNEs in the respective jurisdictions, pertaining to the years commencing on or after 1 January 2016.

It would also obviate the need for Indian subsidiary companies of US MNEs to do local filing of the CbC Reports, thereby reducing the compliance burden.

India has already signed the Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement (MCAA) for Exchange of CbC Reports with 62 jurisdictions.

Filing of CbC Reports by the ultimate parent entity of an MNE group to the prescribed Authority in the jurisdiction in which it is a resident and exchange of such CbC Reports by the Competent Authority of the said jurisdiction with the Competent Authorities of other jurisdictions in which the group has one or more of its constituent entities, are the minimum standards required under the Action 13 Report of OECD/G20 BEPS Project. India is an active participant in BEPS Project.

A CbC Report has aggregated country-by-country information relating to the global allocation of income, the taxes paid, and certain other indicators of an MNE group.

It also contains a list of all the constituent entities of an MNE group operating in a particular jurisdiction and the nature of the main business activity of each such constituent entity.

MNE groups having global consolidated revenue of 750 million Euros or more (or a local currency equivalent) in a year are required to file CbC Reports in their parent entity’s jurisdiction.

The Rupee equivalent of 750 million Euros has been prescribed as Rs.5,500 crore in Indian rules.

This information will enable an enhanced level of assessment of tax risk by both tax administrations, said the Indian Finance Ministry in a release on 27 Mar 2019. fiinews.com