Nokia India served fresh tax demand notice

Nokia
The Cenrtal Board of Direct Taxes has served a fresh income tax notice on telecom major Nokia India pertaining to previous assessment years, an official source said on Friday.

“Fresh tax demands notice has been served to Nokia India for dispute relating to other assessment years, apart from the one being contested currently in ITAT,” a senior finance ministry official said here.

The department had in 2013 slapped a tax notice of Rs 2,000 crore on Nokia’s Indian subsidiary for violating the withholding tax norms since 2006 while making royalty payments to the parent company in Finland.

Nokia has sold its mobile unit to Microsoft, but the Chennai factory, which is involved in the tax dispute, was not included in the sale.

“The company has been served fresh notices. Now it wants those notices to be included in the ongoing discussions under the Mutual Agreement Procedure (MAP),” the source said.

“Officials from India and Finland would meet soon to decide on the course of action,” he added.

The MAP is an alternative procedure available to taxpayers for resolving disputes in double taxation cases.

Confirming the development, company officials contacted by IANS said: “Nokia has indeed received a claim from the tax authorities — it is largely about the same dispute as earlier, so we have nothing to add.”

IANS