American Chemical Society Vs DCIT (ITAT Mumbai)
The brief facts of the case pertaining to the issue, as emanating from the record, are: The assessee is a Corporation based in USA, established to promote and support development of knowledge in the field of chemistry and is organised into various divisions including Chemical Abstracts Service and Publications division. For the year under consideration, the assessee filed its return of income on 14/09/2018, declaring total income of Rs. Nil. During the year, the assessee claimed that the aforesaid two divisions are engaged in the following activities.
“Re: CAS
CAS collects and organizes publicly disclosed chemistry and related scientific information in databases and offers its customers online access to such database (via research tools viz. STN and SciFinder) to view the databases and obtain standardized reports/ research articles therein, in consideration for an annual fee/subscription charge.
The information/content is maintained and stored on data server(s) located in the US.
Re: PUBS
PUBS division reviews and publishes research work submitted by scientists worldwide, organizes the same into research journals/ e-books etc and online access to the same is granted, in consideration for an annual fee/ subscription charges through a secure network as prescribed in the agreements. The information content is maintained on data server(s) located outside India.”
During the year, the assessee received following payment for providing products / services from outside India to Indian customers:
