'India is second most complex tax jurisdiction'

Indian tax laws are perceived to be second most complex in the Asia Pacific region, becoming even less predictable over the last three years, a Deloitte survey has said. India ranks only after China in having most complex jurisdiction for taxation and most complicated requirements of tax, the Asia Pacific Tax Complexity Survey conducted by Deloitte said.

Japan, Australia, Indonesia and South Korea trail India in the complexity index.

"In these two jurisdictions (China and India), well over half of the respondents believe complexity in the regime has increased in the last 3 years," it said. By 'complexity', it meant the perceived level of difficulty in interpreting the tax law and rules in the relevant jurisdictions.

"An overwhelming majority of over 90 per cent respondents said that they would like to see tax reform in India along with China and Indonesia. Specifically for India, the survey respondents suggest that they look forward to reform taking place in timeliness and quality of audits and adoption of BEPS recommendations," Deloitte said. With regard to consistency in tax policies, a majority of the respondents felt that India has become less consistent over the last three years.

Consistency refers to the perceived uniformity and transparency of enforcement of prevailing tax laws.

The report surveyed over 300 financial and tax executives on their views of the current and anticipated tax environment of 20 jurisdictions across Asia Pacific. Of the respondents, 147 had business operations in India.