Is Equalisation Levy An Appropriate Decision Of The Government?

In the budget of 2016-17, the finance minister introduced a new tax system named as the ‘equalisation levy’. This tax of six percent would be levied on the revenue earned through online advertisement. The non-residents who would have received any specific service for more Accounting Audit Service  than one lakh from a resident possessing business in India or a non-resident being permanently settled in India would have to pay the equalisation levy tax but this would be exempted from the income tax.

The committee of the government has decided to not only charge the equalisation levy on the online advertisements alone but also to charge on thirteen other transactions like website designing and maintenance, digital platform for sale of goods and services, cloud computing, online marketing, online download of software and applications, etc.

Aren't there enormous non Indian companies and whether this tax to be levied on non-Indian residents has been dealt with in detail? It has been clarified that the tax is very different than the tax earned on the income therefore; it has to be charged differently. This tax would not be a part of the income tax yet this tax would be levied as this tax has been categorized as a separate tax.

The controversy here is that whether this tax is an additional tax or whether this tax would exempt the Transactions Advisory online advertisement service tax. Formulation of the levy tax is supposed to be beneficial for the non-Indian companies indulged in making online advertisements because this would exempt them from paying the tax under the act of the income tax.

Now there is still a possibility for the officials of the income tax department to charge forty percent more tax from foreign companies settled in India. In these cases, the equalisation levy might also get charged. Therefore, the foreign companies might end up paying double tax in India. This is a concern and hasn't yet been addressed.

The major concern here is that the tax payer would be unable to appeal to the tax officials or the tax authority against such issues. Such issues need to be addressed before charging the equalisation levy tax. Obviously, this added cost can’t be paid by the foreign companies. Thre fore, such issues remain unaddressed.

Obviously, such a tax would invite challenges and such challenges can only be addressed if the Private Limited Company Registration payee and the payer negotiate on the arrangements pertaining to their business. This can only help us know who should actually be the one to pay the additional cost. 

For More Follow Us -  Twitter ! Facebook ! LinkedIn ! Flickr ! Pinterest ! Plerb ! Lockerdome ! Wattpad ! Foursquare ! Plurk