Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Royalty paid by an NR to other NR can't be taxed in India if it arises from patent exploited outside India

The royalty in respect of license granted by a non-resident to another non-resident for manufacturing of CDMA handsets cannot be taxed in India even if these handsets are sold to Indian parties. The source of royalty would be deemed as the place where patent is exploited, viz, where the manufacturing activity takes place, which is outside India.

In the instant case, the appellant was a company incorporated in the USA and was engaged in development and licensing of CDMA technology. The appellant granted license to 'use and sell CDMA technology' to the unrelated Original Equipment Manufacturers ('the OEMs'), who were non-resident and were located outside India, in consideration for royalty. The licenses granted by the appellant to the OEMs were used for manufacturing of handsets and network equipments, which, in turn were sold to various parties located outside India and in India. In respect of taxability of its income in India, the appellant contended that the royalty income earned by it from the OEMs of CDMA mobile handsets and network equipments sold in India was not taxable in India either under Section 9(1)(vi)(c) of the Act or under Article 12(7)(b) of the India-USA DTAA.

Deliberating on the issue, the Tribunal held in favour of assessee as under:

1) The license to manufacture products by using the patented intellectual property of the appellant had not been used in India as the products were manufactured outside India and when such products were sold to parties in India it couldn't be said that OEMs had done business in India;

2) Sale in India without any operations being carried out in India would amount to business with India and not business in India;

3) No patents of the appellant had been used for customization of handsets;

4) The role of appellant ended when it licensed its CDMA technology for manufacturing handsets and when it collected royalty from OEMs on these products;

5) There was no finding that the OEMs had carried on business in India or a part of the sale consideration was attributable to any sale or licensing of software carried out in India. When OEM's itself were not brought to tax, to hold that the appellant was taxable was not correct;

6) The source of royalty was the place where patent was exploited, viz, where the manufacturing activity took place, which was outside India. Hence, the Indian parties would not constitute source of income for the OEMs; and

7) The software was only used with the hardware and was not independent of the equipment or the chipset. Since no separate consideration was paid by Indian parties for licensing of the software and the consideration was paid only for the equipment which had numerous patented technologies, the sale couldn't be bifurcated or broken down into different components.

Thus, the royalty earned by the appellant couldn't be brought to tax in India under Section 9 of the Act or Article 12 of the India-USA DTAA - QUALCOMM INCORPORATED v. ADIT [2013] 30 taxmann.com 30 (Delhi - Trib.)