Importance Of Double Taxation Agreement

One of the fundamental objectives of tax treaties is to prevent income from being taxed twice. This objective is generally achieved by a provision to “eliminate double taxation,” which generally contains a wording similar to the following clause in the Double Taxation Agreement between the United Kingdom and Spain: Mintz, J.M., Weichenrieder, A. J. (2010). The indirect side of direct investment: the financing and taxation of multinational companies. Cambridge: Mit Press. Example of benefit from the double taxation convention: Suppose interest on NRAs [clarification required] bank deposits draw 30 percent tax deduction at source in India. Since India has signed agreements with several countries to avoid double taxation, the tax can only be deducted at 10-15% instead of 30%. In recent years [when?], the evolution of foreign investment by Chinese companies has increased rapidly and has developed quite influentially.

As a result, cross-border tax treatment is becoming one of China`s major financial and commercial projects, and cross-border tax problems are growing. In order to solve these problems, multilateral tax treaties between countries that can legally help businesses on both sides avoid double taxation and find solutions to tax issues are put in place. In order to implement China`s “comprehensive” strategy and to help domestic companies adapt to globalization, China has committed to promoting and signing multilateral tax agreements with other countries in order to achieve common interests. At the end of November 2016, China officially signed 102 double taxation agreements. 98 of them have already come into force. In addition, China has signed an agreement to avoid double taxation with Hong Kong and the Macao Special Administrative Region. China also signed an agreement in August 2015 to avoid double taxation with Taiwan, which has not yet entered into force. According to the Chinese tax administration, the first agreement to avoid double taxation was signed with Japan in September 1983.

The last agreement was signed with Cambodia in October 2016. With regard to the situation of state disorganization, China would continue the agreement signed after the disruption. For example, in June 1987, China signed for the first time an agreement to avoid double taxation with the Socialist Republic of Czechoslovakia. In 1990, Czechoslovakia was divided into two countries, the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic, and the initial agreement with the Czechoslovakian Socialist Republic was continuously used in two new countries.