ince the DTAA is silent about the surcharge and education cess for the purpose of deduction of tax at source, this Tribunal is of the considered opinion that the taxpayer may take advantage of that provision in the DTAA for deduction of tax. The CIT(A) has only deleted the tax component to the extent of surcharge and education cess at the rate applicable under the DTAA.

The Finance Minister of India presented his last Union Budget 2013 (The Budget)amidst rough financial environment. The Budget proposals comein light of the current challenging economic scenario.It is clear that Indian economy is not insulated from the global slowdown. The Indian downtrend has forced the Finance Minister to recommend slew of fiscal/monetary measures to revive the economy.

It is one of the emerging challenges for the Entities availing service through import of services to calculate actual amount of Service Tax under reverse charge mechanism of Finance Act and also to calculate the amount of TDS to be deposited under section 195 of Income tax Act, 1961. Due to involvement of  both Direct [...]

In a case where assessee voluntarily deducted tax and claimed refund directly, grant of interest under section 244A may not arise and the Board Circulars on this issue are applicable, whereas in a case where AO demand the tax / interest consequent to an order under section 195/201 or 201A, and the refund arose consequent [...]

Looking to the magnitude of the voyages undertaken by the freight beneficiary and the fact that the respondent-company has been, as observed by the ld. CIT(A), regularly filing its return of income at Mumbai and being assessed to tax at Mumbai, the finding of the CIT(A) that the freight beneficiary is not engaged in occasional [...]

A literal reading of sec. 195A implies that the income should be increased at the rates in force for the financial years and not the rates at which the tax is to be withheld by the assessee. The Hon’ble Apex Court in the case of GE India Technology (cited Supra) has held that the meaning and effect has to be given to the expression used in the section and while interpreting a section, one has to give weightage to every word used in that section.

In the case of Hyderabad Industries Ltd. (supra) also ITAT, Hyderabad Bench held the similar view. In the present case, the AO has failed to bring any material on record on the basis of which it could be concluded that commission paid to foreign agents is chargeable to tax in India. Unless the income is chargeable to tax in India, then tax is not required to be deducted u/s 195(1). From the facts and materials available on record, no definite conclusion can be made that the commission paid to foreign agents is chargeable to tax in India. Therefore, the disallowance made u/s 40(a)(i) is not sustainable. Hence, there is no reason to interfere with the finding of the CIT(A) on this issue. The grounds raised by the revenue are rejected.

The undisputed fact in the present case remained that the tax on the entire income received by the assessee was required to be deducted at appropriate rates by the respective payers u/s 195(2) of the Act. Had the payer made the deduction of tax at the appropriate rate, the net tax payable by the assessee would have been Nil. Thus there was no liability to pay advance tax by the assessee.

In the instant case of the assessee, the legal position is clear in as much as not having made the application under section 197 r.w.s. 195 of the Act to the Assessing Officer for lower or no deduction of tax, he was statutorily duty bound to have deducted tax at the specified rate on the ‘sum’ i.e. the sale consideration, before making payment to the seller who was an NRI.

 (i)  the assessee was the real and economic employer of the secondees under the secondment agreement. (ii)  the reimbursement of salary costs and other expenditure was without any profit element and hence cannot be regarded as income chargeable in the hands of Abbey National Plc, UK under Article 13 of the India-U.K. Treaty, the above [...]