India is a dead beat and needs to fork out $28 million for back taxes, says New York City. Now a federal appeals court has ruled that the city can sue the Indian government for outstanding taxes.
New York is seeking to collect property tax from India as well as several other diplomatic missions for real estate it claims is used for non diplomatic purposes. Twenty floors of a 26-floor skyscraper owned by the Indian mission near the United Nations are used for apartments, which the city wants to tax. Diplomatic buildings are tax exempt and India and Mangolia had argued that sovereign immunity bars lawsuits against them in U.S. courts. The legal options may be running out for India, but several countries settled their claims at a fraction of the amount the city claimed they owed. |