Section 195(1)

Section 195(1) — the law in short

What the courts have decided on section 195(1), in one screen. Read this first; open an entry when you need the facts, the reasoning and the source.

• Vijay Ship Breaking Corpn v CIT Supreme CourtHelps taxpayer
  Does breaking up ships count as production for the section 80HH and 80-I deduction, and must I deduct tax at source on usance interest paid abroad on the vessel I bought?
  Yes to the deduction, and no tax was deductible. The Supreme Court held that ship breaking gives rise to the production of a distinct and different article, so the deduction under sections 80HH and 80-I was rightly allowed. Production is wider than manufacture, the two words are used disjunctively, and nothing in the ordinary meaning of produce requires the article to be new. On the second question, Explanation 2 to section 10(15)(iv)(c), inserted on 18 September 2003 with effect from 1 April 1983, exempts usance interest payable outside India by a ship breaking undertaking on the purchase of a ship. Since the sum was not assessable in India, no obligation to deduct under section 195(1) arose.
• DIT (International Taxation) v. GE Packaged Power Inc. — filing a NIL return at reassessment does not make a non-resident liable to s.234B interest for a pre-2012 year High CourtHelps taxpayer
  My non-resident client filed a NIL return after a s.148 notice, the Assessing Officer found a permanent establishment and charged s.234B interest for years before 2012. Does the fact that he denied taxability defeat the s.209(1)(d) argument?
  The Delhi High Court held that it does not. For assessment years before the Finance Act, 2012 proviso, s.209(1)(d) allowed the non-resident to reduce his advance tax by the tax that was deductible at source from the remittances, whether or not it was actually deducted, so no advance tax was payable and no s.234B interest could be charged — and the Court held that this remained so 'even though they filed returns declaring NIL income at the stage of reassessment'. It read the earlier decision in DIT v. Alcatel Lucent USA Inc. as turning on that assessee's initial denial of permanent establishment status followed by its volte face admitting it, not on the mere filing of a NIL return.
• Statutory position — s.195: tax is deducted only on a sum “chargeable under the provisions of this Act”, and Explanation 2 fixes who owes the duty, not what is taxable CBDT Circulars & InstructionsCuts both waysSuperseded by amendment
  In March 2026 I remitted a fee to a company outside India without deducting anything, because I did not think any part of it was taxable here. The Assessing Officer now says section 195 obliged me to deduct on the whole remittance, or at least to apply to him before paying. Does section 195 say that — and since the new Act has come in, which Act governs my payment at all?
  Which Act governs is settled by one date: on the CBDT's transition FAQ, where the earlier of credit or payment falls on or before 31 March 2026 the Income-tax Act, 1961 applies, and where it falls on or after 1 April 2026 the Income-tax Act, 2025 applies instead — there, the deduction duty sits in section 393(2), Table, Serial No. 17. So a March 2026 remittance is a section 195 question. Section 195(1) does not tax a remittance; it attaches a deduction duty to “any interest … or any other sum chargeable under the provisions of this Act” paid to a non-resident or a foreign company, at the time of credit or of payment, whichever is earlier. Those five words are the gateway, and in GE India Technology Centre the Supreme Court held on 9 September 2010 that they cannot be read out of the sub-section: a payer who is fairly certain that no part of the sum is chargeable in India may make that determination himself and is not obliged to apply under section 195(2) first. Section 195(2) is the payer's application where a composite payment is partly chargeable; section 197 is a different route, taken by the recipient. Sub-section (6) requires information about every sum, whether or not chargeable, in the form prescribed by rule 37BB — which is why the bank asks for a 15CA even where nothing is deductible.

Listed strongest first: Supreme Court, then High Court, then Tribunal, then CBDT. Nothing here has yet been read in full by a chartered accountant — open an entry to see where it came from.