Buoyed by a transcendental approach to propel India towards “all-round, all-pervasive, and all-inclusive development”[1], India’s Finance Minister, Ms Sitharaman heralded the interim budget, reinvigorating the twin-peaks of good governance and maximum results. The outlook of the government is ubiquitous, with 2024 being an election year as India readies itself to go to the polls. The…

In the ruling administration’s last full budget before India goes to the polls, India’s Finance Minister, Ms Sitharaman, laid out the government’s vision – “Making India a technology-driven and knowledge-based economy with strong public finances, and a robust financial sector.” She identified four transformative opportunities for India: (i) economic empowerment of Women (ii) upliftment of…

When India’s Finance Minister rose before the Lok Sabha (House of Commons) on 1st Feb, 2022 to present her budget for India’s fiscal year 2022-23 (April 1, 2022 to March 31, 2023), she compressed the 284 page budget document into a crisp 90-minute speech, a part of which highlighted how India’s proposed budgetary tax measures…

  A conversation on International Tax Practice culminated into an IFA webinar series on May 20th with global experts sharing their perspectives on landmark treaty and transfer pricing rulings delivered by Courts in various jurisdictions suggesting areas of alignment and divergence of principles. In an eminent panel moderated by Professor Robert Danon, Mr. Mukesh Butani…

  On 20 May, 2021 the first Webinar of IFA’s online series “A conversation on International Tax Practice” was held. Chaired by Robert Danon (Chair IFA Permanent Scientific Committee), global experts shared their perspectives on India’s software royalty case and on landmark transfer pricing rulings delivered by Courts in various jurisdictions thereby suggesting alignment and…

Mukesh Butani, Seema Kejriwal & Ajitesh Dayal Singh Introduction The Supreme Court of India recently settled a two-decade old dispute pertaining to taxability of software income. The Supreme Court ruled that payments to non-resident software vendors/licensors cannot be treated as payment towards royalty, and hence no withholding tax liability can be imposed on the resident…

Introduction India’s 2021 Finance Bill proposes to add a definition of “liable to tax” in its domestic direct tax law. As per the definition, the term ‘liable to tax’, “in relation to a person, means that there is a liability of tax on such person under any law for the time being in force in…

Purpose of the blog: To analyze the recent ruling of the US tax court (‘the Court’) in the case of The Coca-Cola Company (TCCC). Ruling: The US Tax Court, for the years 2007-09, ruled TCCC was under-compensated by its associated enterprises (AEs) for the use of intellectual property, and confirmed an addition of approximately USD…