Tax on distributed income to shareholder

By | March 4, 2016
(Last Updated On: March 4, 2016)

Finance Bill 2016

Tax on distributed income to shareholder

The existing provisions of section 115QA of the Act provide for the levy of additional Income-tax @ 20% of the distributed income on account of buy back of unlisted shares by a company. The distributed income has been defined in the section to mean the consideration paid by the company on buy back of shares as reduced by the amount which was received by the company for issue of such shares. Buyback has been defined to mean the purchase of a company of its own shares in accordance with the provisions of section 77A of the Companies Act, 1956.

Recently doubts have been raised regarding the effect of buybacks undertaken by the company under different provisions of the Companies Act, 1956 or the Companies Act, 2013 and applicability of provisions of section 115QA to such transactions. An issue has also been raised regarding lack of clarity in determination of consideration received by the company at the time of issue of shares being bought back by the company. There are situations where shares may have been issued by the company
in tranches, for different considerations, at different point of time or may have been issued in lieu of existing shares of another company under amalgamation, merger or demerger.

For the purposes of section 115QA, it is the effect of buyback being in the nature of distribution of income which is relevant rather than particular provision of the law relating to companies under which it has been undertaken. Further, lack of clarity in the manner of determination of consideration received by the company would lead to avoidable disputes and also presents a tax arbitrage opportunity of scaling up of consideration particularly under a tax neutral business reorganisation followed by buyback of shares.

In order to provide clarity and remove any ambiguity on the above issues, it is proposed to amend section 115QA to provide that the provisions of this section shall apply to any buy back of unlisted share undertaken by the company in accordance with the provisions of the law relating to the Companies and not necessarily restricted to section 77A of the Companies Act, 1956. It is further proposed to provide that for the purpose of computing distributed income, the amount received by the Company in respect of the shares being bought back shall be determined in the prescribed manner. The rules would thereafter be framed to provide for manner of determination of the amount in various circumstances including shares being issued under tax neutral reorganisations  and in different tranches.

The amendment will take effect from 1st June, 2016.

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