Salary for Services rendered in Foreign Countries cannot be taxed in India for non-production of TRC

Sri Vamsee Krishna Kundurthi Vs ITO (International Taxation) (ITAT Hyderabad)

As the assessee has spent less than 60 days in India during the FY 2013-14, he qualifies as a Non resident under section 6(1) of the Act. Therefore, the foreign allowance of Rs.19,79,072/- was not offered to tax in India in the return of income as the same was received by him outside India for the services rendered outside India and shall not form part of total income under section 5(2) of the Income tax Act, 1961.

Also, as the assessee qualifies as a tax resident of Austria, exemption under Article 15(1) of the India- Austria Double taxation Avoidance Agreement (‘DTAA’) has been claimed in the return of income for the employment income.

Based on the above, any salary income earned by a tax resident of Austria for services rendered in Austria is taxable only in Austria. In case services have been rendered in India the income for work days spent in India is taxable in India. The Assessee wishes to submit that for the captioned AY, he was a tax resident of Austria and a non- resident in India. Hence, the salary received with respect to the services rendered in Austria is not taxable as per article 15(1) of the India- Austria DTAA.

From the Orders of the Ld. Revenue Authorities , I find that the Ld. AO has disallowed the exemption claimed by the assessee under Article 15(1) of the India-Austria DTAA only for want of Tax Residence Certificate (TRC) from Austria. The submission of the assessee in this regard was that despite best possible efforts he was not able to procure TRC from country of residence and the situation may be treated as “impossibility of performance”. I find merits in the submission of the assessee. Normally it is a herculean task to obtain certificates from alien countries for compliance of domestic statutory obligations. In such circumstances the taxpayer cannot be obligated to do impossible task and penalized for the same. If the assessee provides sufficient circumstantial evidence in such cases, the requirement of section 90(4) ought to be relaxed. Further, it is obvious that where there is a conflict between the Treaty and the Act, the Treat shall overrule the Act. In the case of the assessee, by virtue of the Treaty, the assessee is liable to tax in Austria for the services rendered in Austria and not in India. Therefore, though the Act mandates Tax Residency Certificate of Austria , non-production of the same before the Ld. Revenue Authorities shall not enable the Ld. Revenue Authorities not to grant the benefit of the Treaty to the assessee. Therefore, the Ld. Revenue Authorities have erred in not granting the benefit of the Treaty to the assessee just for the reason that the assessee has not submitted the Tax Residency Certificate from Austria.

Please become a Premium member. If you are already a Premium member, login here to access the full content.