Rule 21AB

Rule 21AB — the law in short

What the courts have decided on section Rule 21AB, in one screen. Read this first; open an entry when you need the facts, the reasoning and the source.

• Kenneth Malcolm Holland v DCIT (International Taxation), Gurgaon High CourtHelps departmentNo later treatment found
  My client is a US national who came to India to teach and wants the two-year professors' exemption in the treaty. He has no Tax Residency Certificate from the US and the department will not give him an Indian one. Can he still claim the exemption?
  No. The Punjab and Haryana High Court held that a non-resident claiming relief under a treaty is hit by s.90(4) unless he obtains a certificate of residence from the government of the country of which he claims to be resident, and that a passport, an appointment letter and Form 16 are no substitute. The department's order, recited at para 4 and left undisturbed, had also said that under Rule 21AB(3) it is a person resident in India who may apply to the Assessing Officer for a certificate of residence, so that a non-resident cannot obtain an Indian TRC; the Court dismissed the writ on s.90(4) alone and made no finding of its own on that rule.
• DGIT(Systems) notification of 28.03.2023 on Form 10F CBDT Circulars & InstructionsHelps taxpayerSuperseded by amendment
  My foreign payee has no PAN and cannot file Form 10F online. Is his treaty claim lost?
  No. E-filing of Form 10F was made compulsory by DGIT(Systems) Notification No. 3 of 2022 dated 16 July 2022, but non-residents who had no PAN and were not required to have one were exempted from e-filing — first until 31 March 2023 and, by this notification, until 30 September 2023 — and could file Form 10F manually as before. From October 2023 the portal added a registration category for non-residents not holding and not required to hold a PAN, which allowed such payees to e-file.
• Statutory position — s.90(4), s.90(5) and Rule 21AB: the TRC and Form 10F a non-resident must have before any treaty relief, and the Form 10FA route that is closed to him CBDT Circulars & InstructionsCuts both ways
  What exactly does a non-resident have to hold and file before he can claim a treaty benefit, and can he ask the Indian Assessing Officer for a residence certificate?
  A non-resident to whom a treaty applies is NOT entitled to claim any relief under it unless he obtains a certificate of his being a resident from the Government of the country or specified territory of residence — that is s.90(4), and s.90A(4) is its mirror for an agreement with a specified association. Section 90(5) requires him also to provide such other documents and information as may be prescribed, and Rule 21AB(1) prescribes five particulars to be furnished in Form No. 10F. The Indian Assessing Officer cannot supply a residence certificate to him: Rule 21AB(3) and (4) give the Form 10FA application and the Form 10FB certificate only to an assessee 'being a resident in India'.

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.