Mauritius tightens norms to plug loopholes in taxation agreement

26 Dec 2013 Evaluate

In order to plug loopholes to allay India's concerns over the misuse of the double taxation avoidance agreement (DTAA), Mauritius has put additional safeguards in place for global business companies operating from its jurisdiction to ensure their substantial presence in the country and to remove using 'proxy address' to benefit from tax treaties with India and other nations.

Mauritius' integrated financial sector regulator (FSC) has stated that despite removing tax benefits for business companies using proxy address, the move will also lead to the creation of more economic nexus between those companies and the economy of the island. The additional requirements being imposed on Global Business Category 1 companies as most global investors use GBC-1 route to make investments into India and other countries through Mauritius.

There have been concerns that Mauritius is being used for money laundering and round tripping of illicit funds as it accounts for almost half of the foreign money coming into India. Out of the $22.42 billion FDI inflow in FY13, India receives $9.49 billion from the Mauritius. The investors from the US, Europe and other places tend to route their capital flows into India through this Indian Ocean country to benefit from a favorable tax treaty and the ease of doing business here. Further, there has also been concern related to Mauritius based entities involved in some cases of corruption and alleged tax evasion, which were suspected to have been set up by Indian entities to dodge the tax authorities in India.

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