Compulsorily Convertible Debentures (‘CCDs’) are hybrid instruments, being debt at the time of issue along with a certainty to get converted into equity.

The article in this issue of Direct Tax Amicus discusses at length the question as to whether ‘slump exchange’ is covered by the provisions of Section 50B of the Income Tax Act, 1961.

The article in this issue of Direct Tax Amicus discusses at length a peculiar issue relating to Equalisation levy on non-resident e-commerce facilitators, regarding the amount on which the such e-commerce facilitators should charge such levy.

Sub-section (1H) introduced in Section 206 of the Income-tax Act, 1961 by the Finance Act, 2020, seeks to extend the ambit of Tax Collection at Source (‘TCS’) to consideration received from sale of goods.

Doctrine of Merger is a common law doctrine which is founded on the principles of propriety in the hierarchy of justice delivery system. The underlying logic of Doctrine of Merger is that there cannot be more than one decree or an operative order governing the same subject-matter at a given point of time.

Section 115BAA of the Income Tax Act, 1961 is a reduced corporate taxation scheme introduced for domestic companies vide the Taxation Laws (Amendment) Act, 2019 (w.e.f. AY 2020-21). Once opted for, the domestic company would be taxed at 25.17% (effective tax rate inclusive of surcharge and cess) during the lifetime of the said company in respect of its total income.

After the recent introduction of exemption to Sovereign Wealth Funds in respect of certain income earned from India, the issue as to whether such entities are subject to tax, in the first place, has been reignited.

Section 132(4A) of the Income Tax Act, 1961 empowers an Assessing Officer to presume that anything that is found in searched premises belongs to the occupant of such premises. However, this power to presume is not absolute in the hands of the Assessing Officer, in that the presumption is rebuttable.

OECD’s plan to build a ‘Unified Approach’ for taxing digital economy has been testing the patience of the consumer/ user facing countries since long. India was one of the first countries to implement a digital tax levy called the ‘Equalization levy’ in 2016, and now in 2020 it has broadened the scope of the levy.

Finance Bill, 2020 has proposed to relieve corporates from paying distribution tax on dividends (‘DDT’) and proposes to go back to the old school ways of taxing such dividends in the hands of the shareholders. The Bill has also proposed re-introduction of Section 80M of the Income Tax Act which was omitted vide Finance Act, 2003.