Branch Office set up in India which merely remunerated employees seconded by US Group Company does not constitute a Permanent Establishment in India

Recently, the Delhi bench of the Income-tax Appellate Tribunal (the Tribunal) in the case of Whirlpool India Holdings Ltd. v. DDIT [201 1-TII-15-ITAT-DEL-INTL] held that Branch Office set up in India which merely remunerated employees seconded by US group company does not constitute a Permanent Establishment (PE) in accordance with Article 5 of India- USA tax treaty (the tax treaty) and therefore was not taxable in India. Further, the Tribunal held that since the taxpayer was not chargeable to tax in India in terms of Article 5 of the tax treaty, it was unnecessary to go into the question whet...