Under Article 24 (4) of the India-Germany DTAA, Enterprises of India, the capital of which is wholly or partly owned or controlled, directly or indirectly, by one or more residents of Germany, cannot be subjected in India to any taxation or any requirement connected therewith which is other or more burdensome than the taxation and connected requirements to which other similar enterprises of India are or may be subjected;

Where the assessee, a Co.op Housing Society became entitled, by virtue of the Development Control Regulations, to Transferable Development Rights (TDR) and the same were sold by it for a price to a builder and the question arose whether the transaction of sale receipt could be taxed, HELD that though the TDR was a ‘capital asset’, there being no ‘cost of acquisition’ for the same, the consideration could not be taxed.

The judgement in Sun Engineering had to be confined to a case where the issue had attained finality in the original proceedings. Such an issue could not be permitted to be agitated by the assessee in reassessment proceedings. However, as the facts showed that the issue had not attained finality in the original proceedings, there was no bar in the assessee raising such issues in the reassessment proceedings.

On facts, the assessee had rendered support services to its subsidiaries and some employees of the latter had worked under the guidance of the assessee, but the work so done by the employees was for the business of the Indian subsidiaries and not for the assessee. There is a distinction between business of the foreign company and that of its Indian subsidiaries. What was done by the employees of the Indian subsidiaries was running the business of the Indian subsidiaries with the guidance of the assessee. The work done by the employees of Indian subsidiaries did not mean that these employees were doing business of the foreign principal unless the work so done by these employees entitled the assessee for rewards of the work so done. The situs and manner of rendering of services, by anyone other than the employees or sub-contractees of the foreign principal, cannot govern whether or not the foreign principal will have a PE in India.

Where the assessee was a stock broker but it was consistently following the practice of holding some shaes as ‘stock in trade’ and other shares as ‘investments’ and the question arose whether the profits on the sale of shares held as investments constituted a capital gain or business profits, HELD

Though the issue and service of notice relates to procedural law S. 292-BB takes away the valuable right of an assessee to challenge the validity of assessment during the course of appellate proceedings and creates a new disability on the assessee by debarring him from challenging the validity of the same;

(4) Consequently, s. 292-BB cannot be construed to be retrospective and has to be applied prospectively in respect of AY 2008-09 and subsequent years.