Non-disclosure of foreign assets could turn risky for taxpayers: Jayant Sinha

NEW DELHI, DEC 3: Domestic taxpayers would do well to fully disclose their foreign assets with Indian tax authorities, Jayant Sinha, Minister of State for Finance, has said.

Non-disclosure of foreign assets could turn a “risky” proposition for taxpayers, Sinha said in his inaugural address at the 6th meeting of Automatic Exchange of Information (AEOI) Group in the capital on Thursday.

He highlighted that income-tax returns already stipulate that taxpayers need to disclose details of their foreign assets.

Sinha said that strict and efficient framework for effective automatic exchange of information among countries was being put in place and this would be operational from 2017.

Common reporting standards

Sinha also said that India was committed to the common reporting standards (CRS) agreed to by nations for exchange of information.

Representatives of 100 countries are participating in the two-day conference.

Sinha said the conference will discuss three main issues — ensuring that confidentiality provisions are well understood by all; common reporting standards so that information is exchanged seamlessly; compliance, implementation and follow-up of the information received under Automatic Exchange of Information.

Mauritius DTAA

Meanwhile, a senior CBDT official Akhilesh Ranjan said on Thursday that India was in talks with Mauritius to revise the double taxation avoidance agreement (DTAA) between the two countries.

He, however, declined to get into specifics of the negotiations.

Ranjan also said that India was in talks with as many as 20 more jurisdictions for entering into a tax information exchange agreement (TIEA).