Countries around the world, including India, will get more power to tax big multinationals such as Google, Apple and Facebook doing business within their borders under a proposed overhaul of decades-old rules. 

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has proposed to expand government rights to tax multinationals, especially big internet firms, by releasing a methodology for such taxation.

The move implies digital companies around the world will have to pay more tax, though the quantum in India is yet to be decided. The government has already come out with an SEP framework whereby it can tax digital companies in India even if they don’t have a permanent establishment. 

This essentially means that companies which do not have even a single employee or office in India too can be taxed. A few months back, CBDT had come out with its own rules on how to go about taxing multinationals in India. These, as of now, are proposals and will have to be notified to become a law, said tax experts.

Companies such as Facebook, Google, Twitter, LinkedIn and Airbnb have reached out to tax experts, seeking an opinion on the OECD proposals and its impact on their India revenues. #casansaar (Source - Economic Times, ET Bureau)