In the recent years, India has emerged as a leading investment destination across globe. Alternative Investment Funds (“AIFs”) have become an important asset class for both domestic and global investors seeking...
Tax
Our Tax team
possesses in-depth technical knowledge and extensive practical experience in
providing solution-based advice to clients. Tax team comprises of a well-balanced blend of lawyers and chartered
accountants (CPAs), enabling us to offer comprehensive tax services across
various disciplines and helping our clients navigate complexities in an
ever-changing tax environment.
Our Tax practice is
seamlessly integrated with other corporate and regulatory practices resulting
in a more tailored, solution-oriented, and holistic approach.
The Tax team’s
core competency across direct and indirect tax involves assisting clients with
matters pertaining to Mergers & Acquisitions, structuring inbound and
outbound investments, group restructurings, private equity
and venture capital advisory, divestments, corporate reorganization, tax due
diligences, dispute resolution, succession
planning, classification under Customs and GST (i.e., Goods and Services Tax),
audit and investigation support, legal opinions on tax issues
A brief snapshot
of the Tax team’s competencies is provided below:
1. TRANSACTION TAX
SERVICES
Our Tax team has core expertise in providing M&A / transactional tax
services, and we frequently advise on complex domestic and cross-border
M&A, joint ventures and demergers, as well as corporate reorganizations.
Our areas of specialization include:
- Transaction structuring
- Fund Structuring
- Private Equity / Venture Capital - investments and exits
- Cross-border restructuring
- Inbound and outbound investment structuring
- Capital & investment structuring
- Investment in and through GIFT city
- Externalization / Internalization of holding structures (including for start-ups)
- Corporate insolvency
- Tax due diligence (sell-side/buy-side)
- Execution support (including review of transaction documents)
2. TAX
ADVISORY & PLANNING – DOMESTIC & INTERNATIONAL TAX
Our
Tax practice group has extensive experience in advising a diverse range of
clients on domestic, international and cross border tax matters. We are
dedicated to assisting clients in identifying and implementing tax
planning/optimisation strategies, including advising on the following areas:
- Interpretation and application of International Tax Treaties read with Multilateral Convention to Implement Tax Treaty Related Measures to Prevent Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (MLI).
- Evaluating the applicability and implementation of the Pillar I and Pillar II solutions under Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) 2.0 project.
- Applicability ofgeneral anti-avoidance rules (GAAR) provisions on any arrangement.
- Eligibility for claiming tax treaty benefits and issues pertaining to tax residency.
- Existence of Place of Effective Management (PoEM) of foreign company in India.
- Identifying potential Permanent Establishment (PE) risk in India and suggesting potential risk mitigating strategies.
- Applicability of indirect transfer tax provisions by virtue of reorganization undertaken outside India.
- Complex transfer pricing issues.
- Withholding tax obligations.
- Identifying strategies for tax efficient repatriation of funds (includingsurplus cash) from India.
3. SUCCESSION PLANNING / PRIVATE CLIENT PRACTICE
Our team has an extensive experience in advising
families, from a tax and regulatory perspective in designing and setting-up
structures that facilitate inheritance and distribution of wealth in a tax
efficient manner. We also assist the clients in identifying the alternate
holding structures for the family (such as holding companies, LLP, Trust etc.)
for wealth maximization and protection. Our areas of specialization include:
- Drafting Wills and family constitutions.
- Creation of trusts.
- Family settlement agreements.
- Investment & divestment by family offices.
- Advise on cross border inheritance (including for overseas assets)
- Obtaining Probates and approval from regulators
4. TAX
LITIGATION AND DISPUTE RESOLUTION
Our
Tax team assists clients in developing the overall tax litigation strategy and represent them before the Indian-tax authorities and tax courts, both
directly and through Senior Counsels.
Our
litigation practice not only represents clients before Tribunals and Courts,
but also has vast experience in handling advance ruling and arbitration
matters, pertaining to complex tax issues. Along with litigation before the
Courts and tax authorities, our team also handholds clients through DGGI
(Director General of GST Intelligence) and DRI (Directorate of Revenue
Intelligence) investigations.
5. INDIRECT
TAX AND GST
Our team assists on a
variety of issues under indirect tax, covering Customs laws (including foreign
trade), GST and pre-GST laws such as Central Excise, Service Tax, Sales Tax and VAT.
Our GST practice provides a
range of litigation and advisory support including:
- Tax rates, time and place of supply, tax credit optimization and restrictions, tax benefits/incentives, tax refunds
- Classification issues, valuation models, implications on free of costs supplies, stock transfers, discounts, related party transactions
- Cost-benefit analysis for clients on identifying matters suited for amnesty and for successful discharge under such schemes
- Issues arising out of mergers, demergers, amalgamations, etc.
- Supply-chain and operating models and undertaking tax optimization of existing structures.
- Anti-profiteering provisions and their implications including impact of GST rate change, and appropriate safeguards to be adopted
- Assisting, advising and handholding of clients in audit and audit related support, through DGGI/DRI investigation, search and seizure exercises, arrest, bail, demands made by authorities, reply to show cause notices, challenge to investigation, making of protest payments, including advisory on mitigation of risks prior to investigation.
- Customs classification exercises, valuation, advise/review of customs duties, matters pertaining to special valuation branch. Assisting clients in establishing and maintaining efficient cross border operations with low costs, customs health check including identification of import /export transaction risk and incentives, valuation adopted
- Advising clients on FTA regulations, country of origin rules, export incentive schemes, duty exemption/remission scheme under the Foreign Trade Policy including advising on export and import restrictionsincluding constitutional challenges to FTP provisions, schemes or orders, before the Director General of Foreign Trade, relevant Appellate Authorities, High Courts and the Supreme Court.
- Refunds - Assisting and representing clients in refund related litigation, where refunds have been denied or require to be expedited. Assistance in securing interest for long pending refund claims, refund in cases involving export of services or inverted duty structure.
- Policy Support - Representation of businesses / industry coalitions before various regulators and policy makers including the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade, Reserve Bank of India, Central Board of Direct Taxes, Central Board of Indirect Tax and Customs, Directorate General of Foreign Trade, on a variety of industry issues.
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