India, Germany agree to enhance tax-related information sharing, revise DTAA

NEW DELHI: India and Germany have agreed to enhance exchange of tax-related information and revise the bilateral tax pact, the final version of which would be ready by September 2015, Finance Ministry said today.

The agreement on increased cooperation for exchange of financial information came after a meeting between Revenue Secretary Shaktikanta Das and Germany State Secretary Johannes Geismann in Berlin last week.

The effort to seek more information from Germany forms part of the government's exercise to counter the menace of tax evasion and stashing of black money abroad, Finance Ministry said in a statement.

During the meeting, issues relating to exchange of tax related information, Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) project and Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement (DTAA) negotiations were discussed, it added.

"India and Germany agreed to resume negotiations on partial revision of the DTAA between the two countries with a view to bring the provisions relating to exchange of information to international standards.

"It was also agreed that both sides would meet in New Delhi in September, 2015 and strive to agree on a final version to ensure that it is signed soon," the statement added.

It was also agreed that India and Germany will continue to exchange tax-related information spontaneously on the basis of the existing agreements and explore other possibilities of enhancing exchange of information.

As signatories to the Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement regarding automatic exchange of information on financial accounts, Germany and India will begin negotiations towards a memorandum of understanding, laying out technical details of information exchanges on financial accounts, the statement added.

An amending Protocol to the existing DTAA was last discussed by the competent authorities of the two countries in New Delhi in April, 2011, but further progress in the matter could not be made, Finance Ministry said.