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Samyak Navedia

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Consultant in the Tax Practice at the Mumbai office of Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas. Samyak advises on a broad spectrum of direct tax matters, including international taxation, corporate taxation and taxation aspects of restructuring and funds. He has also made representations and briefed senior counsels in making representations before High Courts and Income-Tax Appellate Tribunals. He can be reached at samyak.navedia@cyrilshroff.com.

Debunking taxation of cloud services as royalty 

Businesses are increasingly integrating cloud computing models into their operations, necessitating unambiguity regarding the position of tax leviable on such transactions under the Income-Tax Act, 1961 (“IT Act”), and tax treaties. Uniformity in the tax treatment of cross-border cloud computing models has become crucial for these businesses to plan their operations and tax costs effectively. A long-standing subject of scrutiny has been whether to consider the taxation of payment for cross-border cloud services as “royalties” or “fee for technical services” (“FTS”)/ “fee for included services” (“FIS”). However, in recent rulings, Indian courts have affirmed that such standardised services would not be liable to income tax in India.Continue Reading Debunking taxation of cloud services as royalty