Company News

China’s State Administration of Taxation (SAT) recently clarified the tax treatment towards transfers of natural resource use rights.

The Government of India is planning to propose a hike in the maximum foreign direct investment (FDI) capital allowed in broadcasting services – such as direct-to-home (DTH) and cable TV – to a uniform portion of 74 percent.

To aid tax and banking-related information exchange and prevent tax evasion, India signed a double taxation avoidance agreement (DTAA) with Macau on January 1. The agreement will also help to generate a better investment climate for Indian businesses in Macau – a special administrative region of the People’s Republic of China and well-known offshore financial center and tax haven.

On December 31, 2011, both Shenzhen and Beijing announced their new minimum wage standards for 2012. Following the adjustment, Shenzhen’s minimum wage standard will reach RMB1,500, the highest in the whole country.

Following the promulgation of a national decreeordering foreign employees’ mandatory participation in China’s social insurance system, Beijing recently issued its own implementation details in a bid to strengthen the enforcement of the new policy

The beginning of China’s pilot value-added tax (VAT) reform has aimed to make transport services and a list of modern services in pilot areas subject to VAT, instead of business tax. Recently, as a new update to the implementation details of the ongoing VAT reform, China’s Ministry of Finance (MoF) and State Administration of Taxation (SAT) clarified that some of these VATable services can enjoy zero VAT rate and VAT exemption.

The Indian government on Tuesday agreed to allow 100 percent foreign ownership in single brand retail stores, paving the way for international businesses such as Starbucks, Ikea and Adidas to operate independently in the country without having to involve local partners. Foreign single brand retailers were previously limited to 51 percent ownership.

According to the old Circular guoshuifa[1998] No. 101, overseas social welfare contributions made by employers are exempted from IIT, as long as they are mandatory social insurances with legal basis and such costs are not deducted from the WFOE’s taxable income for corporate income tax (CIT) calculation purposes.

The Ministry of Finance (MOF) and the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) recently issued a notice announcing the decision to eliminate 253 items of administrative and institutional fees pertaining to enterprises (“fees”) imposed by provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government, resulting in the reduction of enterprises’ burden by approximately RMB10 billion.

To resolve the issue of duplicate taxation on goods and services and support the development of the modern service industry, the State Administration of Taxation (SAT) and Ministry of Finance (MOF) issued the “Pilot Project Plan for Replacing the Collection of Business Tax with Value-added Tax (caishui [2011] No. 110)” (“Pilot Project Plan”) in November 2011.