Tribunal held that, foreign payees rendered only marketing and sales support services for canvassing assessee’s BPO business in foreign countries and therefore, no technical service was either rendered nor any technical know-how, drawings and designs were made available by them to assessee in India to enable it to carry on its BPO business. Payments were made to entities based in USA and, therefore, provisions of DTAA between India and USA came into play. Payment made by assessee to foreign companies for receiving marketing and support service should come within ambit of “fees for technical services” as defined in DTAA and hence not taxable in India. Almost 70% of total payment was made by assessee to its wholly owned subsidiary which was incorporated in USA and assessee itself directly owned 100% of its issued equity capital. In assessee’s case, shares of B company that incorporated in USA were 100% owned by Indian Tax Resident and, therefore, conditions of Article 24(1)(a) were clearly fulfilled. Payment made by assessee to foreign entities towards marketing and sale support services were not chargeable to tax in India and assessee was right in law in not deducting any tax thereon .(AY.2012-13).
Onprocess Technology India Pvt. Ltd. v. DCIT ( 2018) 195 TTJ 292/ ( 2019) 179 DTR 299 (Kol.)(Trib.)
S. 40(a)(i) : Amounts not deductible-Deduction at source-Non-resident -Marketing expenses—Payment made by assessee to foreign entities towards marketing and sale support services were not chargeable to tax in India and assessee was right in law in not deducting any tax thereon – DTAA-India –USA. [S. 195, Art .24(1)]