CA certificates under I-T Dept scanner

 After the Satyam scam, the role of chartered accountants (CAs)
has come into focus again. This time the Income Tax (I-T) Department has found
that CAs have given false certificates, enabling Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) and
foreign nationals to evade taxes in India. The government agency has informed
the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), which regulates the
chartered accounting profession in the country, of the fraud. ICAI has powers to
take disciplinary action against errant members. Calling the fraud ‘a massive
violation of the law’, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) Member Saroj
Bala (in charge of revenue) said, “A large number of such payments are outright
tax deductible in India and taxable in India, but are not taxed because CAs have
certified them not taxable. The ‘CBDT’ administers all direct tax issues in the
country, but the tip-off on this method of tax evasion came from a CA. Under the
Income-tax Act, a CA certificate can be obtained saying no tax needs to be
deducted while remitting money overseas, after which the Reserve Bank of India
permits the transfer of money. Bala said the department receives numerous such
certificates involving ‘thousands of crore of rupees’. A firm estimate of
revenue loss is not yet available as investigations are still on. The payments
that are under the I-T Department’s scanner are interest on overseas loans,
payments for contractual work by foreign firms in India and capital gains from
sale of assets (similar to the Vodafone-Hutch transaction). For instance, if an
Indian firm borrows from a foreign bank, under normal circumstances tax will
have to be deducted on the subsequent interest payment. But no tax is payable if
a CA certifies that the overseas entity that receives the interest payment is
not a tax resident of India. The I-T Department’s investigations have found that
the non-tax residency is not necessarily the case. “Some verifications and
inspections of certificates have been carried out and many defaulters found. We
are contemplating action against this false certification by CAs,” Bala said.
Indian tax rules also require tax to be deducted on payments from any income
earned by a company that has a permanent establishment (PE) in India.
Verification of many such CA certificates revealed that the foreign recipients
had PEs in India, but escaped the tax net. Investigations found that both small
and large accountancy firms are into this practice. “Normally, many CAs do not
apply their mind. They issue the certificate and make money,” she said, adding
that when confronted, some CAs claimed they were not aware of the tax
provisions.

(Source : Business Standard, 2-2-2009)