by admin | May 25, 2021 | Markets, Networking, Social Media, Technology
San Francisco : With political pressure mounting on digital giants to pay more taxes, Facebook has announced plans to move to a local selling structure in countries where it has an office — a move aimed at paying tax in the country where profits are earned.
Currently, advertising revenue supported by Facebook’s local teams are recorded by its international headquarters in Dublin, Ireland.
The change in its selling structure announced on Tuesday means that advertising revenue supported by the local teams would be recorded by its office in that country.
“We believe that moving to a local selling structure will provide more transparency to governments and policy makers around the world who have called for greater visibility over the revenue associated with locally supported sales in their countries,” Dave Wehner, Chief Financial Officer, Facebook, wrote in a blog post.
The social media giant is expected to start paying tax on its local operations across roughly 30 jurisdictions outside the US including France, Germany and eight other EU countries where it has local offices, according to Politico.eu.
“It is our expectation that we will make this change in countries where we have a local office supporting advertisers in that country. That said, each country is unique, and we want to make sure we get this change right,” Wehner said
“We plan to implement this change throughout 2018, with the goal of completing all offices by the first half of 2019,” Wehner added.
The company has been under pressure from the US and Europe for its tax practices.
The European Commission feels that digital companies pay less tax than it should.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Economy, Markets, News
By Porisma P. Gogoi,
New Delhi : Amid speculation about a Goods and Services Tax (GST) rate cut on white goods, industry stakeholders said a move from 28 per cent to a lower tax slab is essential for the health of the consumer electronics sector that has seen “single-digit or almost flat” growth in the past four quarters.
Stakeholders are optimistic that lower tax will not only give a boost to sales and manufacturing but also lead to an upgradation of consumers’ choice of consumer appliances.
“We have been recommending that GST rates should go down from 28 per cent to 18 per cent, further brought down to may be 12 per cent for energy-efficient products,” said Kamal Nandi, Vice President of the Consumer Electronics and Appliances Manufacturers Association (CEAMA).
Nandi said incentives should be given to people to move into energy-efficient four-star or five-star-rated products category, which in turn will help the government to save energy.
“A move from 28 per cent to a lower tax slab will be a welcome move and we definitely look forward to this as early as possible. The industry desperately needs this correction in the GST slab,” he added.
Overall demand for consumer appliances will go up, which in turn will help the industry, asserted Nandi.
“The industry over the last four quarters is in a single-digit growth or almost flat, except for one month of June where we saw a huge spike in demand on pre-GST sales. Other than that, the industry is not growing,” Nandi told IANS.
The consumer durables market is split into two broad categories of consumer electronics (brown goods) and consumer appliances (white goods). In July, GST was introduced on consumer goods with a tax rate of 28 per cent.
Air conditioners (ACs), refrigerators, washing machines, sewing machines, electric fans and other domestic goods all fall under the white goods category.
According to an India Brand Equity Foundation report, the refrigerators segment makes up 31 per cent of the consumer appliances market, while the Indian ACs market size by volume accounted for sales of 10 million units in 2015.
“Currently the market size of washing machine is around five million units, which is expected to grow 10-12 per cent in FY18,” the report said.
An expert on indirect taxation from the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), who did not want to be named, told IANS that GST as a whole had allowed seamless input tax credit and overall goods had become cheaper by 3-4 per cent in general. He said if rates come down from 28 per cent, the products would become even more affordable.
Ashish Gupta, Managing Partner, Vijay Sales, said with lower tax rates, consumers’ choice of electronic appliances will upgrade to bigger products.
“Eventually, if it (GST rate) is lowered, it will help in increasing numbers because goods will become more affordable. It will help to boost sales, numbers will definitely go up,” Gupta told IANS.
“Also, we will see more upgrades. For example, if a consumer is going for a 250 litre appliance, he will be able to go for a 300 litre one. So that is another benefit that we will see,” Gupta said.
(Porisma P. Gogoi can be contacted at porisma.g@ians.in)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Economy, News, Politics
By Meghna Mittal,
New Delhi : The taxpayers’ GST information does not pose any risk towards violation of people’s privacy as the data is not shared with anybody and even the Goods and Services Tax Network or its Board members cannot view it, GSTN said on Thursday.
GSTN is the information-technology backbone of the Goods and Services Tax (GST).
The statement comes against the backdrop of Supreme Court ruling on Thursday which declared the Right to Privacy as a fundamental right and must be protected as an intrinsic part of life and personal liberty and freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution.
“The Supreme Court order applies to everybody. Right to privacy applies to everybody. But the security of the GST data will not be compromised because we are not sharing it with anybody,” GSTN Chairman Navin Kumar told IANS.
Kumar said that the data of the taxpayers is encrypted, which remains on the servers and goes directly to the tax department.
On being asked if ownership of private stakeholders in GSTN might compromise data security, he said: “Why should it impose any risk? ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, HDFC are on the Board. They don’t have any access to the data. We also do not have access to the data. The data is on the servers, it comes from taxpayers and goes to the tax department.”
GSTN is a private organisation with the Centre and state governments owning 24.5 per cent stake each, while HDFC, NSE Strategic Investment Corporation, HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank own 10 per cent each. LIC Finance holds 11 per cent stake in GSTN.
BJP MP Subramanian Swamy had also earlier raised doubts over the majority stake of GSTN being held by private players, which he said might compromise the data security.
But Kumar said: “We have elaborate security system. We have ISO 27001 certified information security managment system (ISMS). which is best standard of information security system.”
“We have layered security structure, starting with physical security, network security, application security, data security, etc. These are the various layers at which security is ensured. There is also a third party audit,” he added.
GSTN also has in place 24×7 security operations centre, which keeps a watch on the data coming and going.
“If there is any suspicious activity, they can raise alarm and action can be taken. We have elaborate security. There is a team of people monitoring it,” he added.
The Supreme Court’s decision on Right to Privacy may have an impact on the petitions challenging the making of Aadhaar mandatory. Kumar said that the Aadhaar information is shared with various traders and organisations but this is not the case in GST.
In some cases, though taxpayers themselves share the information with private GST Suvidha Providers (GSPs), but GSTN does not come into the picture. “GSTN cannot prevent taxpayers not to give data to GSPs. Taxpayers are giving their data to GSPs, not us. So the data leak cannot happen from GSTN,” he added.
(Meghna Mittal can be reached at meghna.m@ians.in)
—IANS
