At an Indian multinational (MNC) that owns a foreign subsidiary through a company registered in Singapore, this is an unsettling time. Senior executives are preparing to visit the island country to attend a board meeting that's been organised outside India for the first time. In Bengaluru, senior executives at a prominent startup huddle together every week to discuss a potentially disruptive matter. In both the cases, the companies are staring at a likely tax liability in the coming year on account of a new regulation -Place of Effecti ve Management or PoEM. This is a framework to determine the tax payable by a foreign company that for all purposes is managed from India and yet does not pay tax domestically. Many Indian companies that have traditionally used holding companies and subsidiaries overseas for various reasons are assessing how they may be affected and are racing to put new structures in place before they come under scrutiny from next year. “For instance, multinational