Article 12(3)(a) India-US DTAA — the law in short
What the courts have decided on section Article 12(3)(a) India-US DTAA, in one screen. Read this first; open an entry when you need the facts, the reasoning and the source.
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Godaddy.Com LLC v ACIT
High CourtHelps taxpayer
We pay a foreign registrar to register our domain names. Is that royalty, and must we withhold?
No, it is not royalty. A registrar has no proprietorship rights in the domain name it registers for a customer, so it cannot confer or transfer a right to use that name — and without a right to use there is nothing to characterise as royalty under s.9(1)(vi) or Article 12(3)(a) of the India-US treaty. The Delhi High Court allowed the assessee's appeal, reversing the Tribunal, which had held the receipts were royalty because a domain name is an intangible similar to a trademark.
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.