The assessee was a Limited Liability Partnership (LLP) and was incorporated in Germany. It had provided various services to its group entity in India. During Assessment proceedings the AO held that the assessee had received an amount from its Indian Group company, which had to be treated as royalty under Article-12 of India-Germany DTAA and passed the draft assessment order. The DRP refused to interfere with the addition made in the draft assessment order, pursuant to DRP’s directions, the AO passed the impugned assessment order. The Tribunal held that, the assesseee submitted is not an eligible assessee as per section 144C(15)(b) of the Act, therefore AO could not have passed the draft assessment order under section 144C(1) of the Act. Therefore, the draft assessment order as well as the final assessment order passed subsequently was void ab initio. (AY. 2013-14)
Maquet Holdings B. V. & Amp; Co. KG v. Dy. CIT(IT) (2019) 177 DTR 279 / 200 TTJ 120 (Mum.)(Trib.)
S. 144C : Reference to dispute resolution panel–Draft assessment order-Assessee is a LLP in Germany-TPO had not proposed any variation– Assessee was not a foreign company assessee is not eligible to draft AO order-Draft assessment order and final order passed by AO held void ab initio-DTAA-India–Germany. [S. 144C(15) (b), Art. 12]