TMI BlogRevised Form-A Prescribed in Manual on Exchange of Information issued by CBDT Officers dealing with Exchange of information Foreign Tax AuthoritiesX X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... equests for exchange of information to the Competent Authority concerned. I am further directed to request that, henceforth, all request for exchange of information may be sent in 'Form-A' (enclosed and to inform that, requests made using old proforma may not be processed in the FT TR Decision. COMPETENT AUTHORITY CONTACT DETAILS Jurisdiction: Europe and North America (including Caribbean) Competent Authority Mr. Akhilesh Ranjan, IRS Joint Secretary, FT TR-I, Central Board of Direct Taxes, Department of Revenue Ministry of Finance, Government of India Full address : Room No. 803, 8th Floor, C Wing, Hudco Vishala Building, Bhikaji Cama Place, New Delhi-110066 Email: ranjan.akhilesh@ nic.in Telephone: + 91-11-26108402 Fax: +91-11-27177990 Director Mr. Navneet Manohar, IRS Director, FT TR-III, Central Board of Direct Taxes, Department of Revenue Ministry of Finance, Government of India Full address: Room No. 703,7th Floor, C Wing, Hudco Vishala Building, Bhikaji Cama Place, New Delhi- ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ry of Finance, Government of India Full address : Room No. 709, 7th Floor, C Wing, Hudco Vishala Building, Bhikaji Cama Place, New Delhi-110066 Email: supriva.rao@nic.in Telephone:+ 91-11-26179436 APPENDIX FORM A: REQUEST FOR INFORMATION UNDER THE PROVISIONS OF TAX TREATIES PART I OF FORM A Basic Information 1. Taxpayer under investigation/ examination in India Name: Full Address: PAN: Current Jurisdiction: 2. Country/jurisdiction to whom request is being made 3. Contact details of Assessing Officer/DDIT (Investigation)/Transfer Pricing Officer Name and Designation: Address: Email: Telephone and Fax: 4. Contact details of Range/Unit Head Name and Designation: Address: ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... Tax(es) to which the request relates: 11 Tax purpose for which the information is requested: Please check the box: __ determination, assessment and collection of taxes, __recovery and enforcement of tax claims, __investigation or prosecution of tax mattes, __other (please specify): 12 Relevant background: 13 Information requested: 14 Grounds for believing that the requested information is held in the requested jurisdiction or is within the possession or control or is within the possession or control of a person within its jurisdiction 15 Name and address of any person believed to be in possession of the information requested (to the extent known): 16 Form, if any, in which information is requested: For copies of documents what type of authentication, if any, is requested Other form requirements, if any: 17 ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... hem. Information received from other jurisdictions under tax treaties may also be mentioned, but it should be ensured that the name of the jurisdiction is not mentioned, nor any copies of the correspondence with that jurisdiction are attached 4. Where requests for Exchange of Information (EOI) are to be made in a group of cases under inquiry/investigation, separate Forms should be filled up for different taxpayers. Further, separate Forms need to be filed up for EOI requests to different countries/jurisdictions in the case of the same taxpayer. Thus, for instance, if three members of a family have received gifts from persons located in three different jurisdictions the total number of Forms to be filled in would be nine. 5. Row wise instructions for filling up the Form are provided in the later part of these Instructions which must be followed by the Pr.CIT/Pr.DIT/CIT/DIT concerned. The guidelines for assistance in preparing the references have been provided in Paras 3.5.1 to 3.5.21 of the Manual on Exchange of Information which should be followed by the officers concerned. 6. It shall be ensured that request for only that information is made which has demonstrable forese ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... the foreign person/entity or the holder of the information in a foreign country if mentioned in the request may be stated in Row 6 for statistical purposes. Instruction for filling up Part II of Form A 1. Part II of Form A is essentially the same as Annexure-D of the Manual on Exchange of Information issued in 2013 and only this Part will be sent to the Competent Authority of the country/jurisdiction from where the request for information will be made. Accordingly all the information which may be useful for the foreign tax authorities for providing assistance, including copies of the documents etc., must be captured here, if necessary through Annexures. 2. Row-wise instructions for filling up Part II of Form A are given below: Row Instructions Row 1 The name of the country/jurisdiction from where the information is requested should be mentioned. Row 2 The name and designation of the Indian Competent Authority, i.e. , JS (FT TR-I) and JS FT TR-II) as the case maybe needs to be mentioned here. This will be filled up by FT TR division and thus should be left ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... risdictions, the taxpayer or the holder of the information has certain rights including a right to be informed or notified that a request concerning him for information under a tax treaty has been made. The requesting country, however, in certain exceptional cases can make a request that the taxpayer/holder of information may not be so notified. If a request to refrain from notifying the taxpayer(s) concerned is made, the reasons for the same must be clearly explained. Such reasons could be that the information is of a very urgent nature and the process of prior notification to the taxpayer will delay supply of information or the prior notification is likely to undermine the success of the investigation being conducted. A request to refrain from notifying the taxpayer should not be made in a routine manner and such request should be made only if it is essential and can be justified on the basis of documentary evidence. The reason that the taxpayer concerned is likely to file an appeal against the supply of information would generally not be a valid reason for making such a request. Row 9 The time period or the taxable event ( e.g. the date on ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ould not be requested. In some cases, it has been observed that a large number of Questions are asked in the request for EOI even though some of the questions do not appear to emanate from the issues under investigation and the relevant questions which should actually be asked are not specifically stated. Request for voluminous information should be avoided as it may become counter-productive on account of the following reasons: The request may be considered as having been made in a casual and perfunctory manner and may be responded to accordingly by the foreign tax authorities More critical information which is actually required, may be missed by the foreign tax authorities in a request with a long list of questions and the useful information may not be received Though the foreign tax authorities may be genuinely trying to provide assistance, they may not be able to do so as they would need to collect the requested information from various sources which they may not be able to do in a timely manner Seeking unnecessary details in a casual manner without due consideration of the effort that may be required on the part of treaty partner, is likely ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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