The Supreme Court in its recent judgment in the case of Engineering Analysis Centre of Excellence Private Limited has held that the sum payable by the resident end users/distributors to non-resident software manufacturers/distributors is not royalty and not chargeable to tax in India. The landmark judgment, while providing significant relief to taxpayers, has the potential to raise a host of interrelated issues under other laws like the Copyright, Goods and Service Tax, Equalisation Levy, Customs, etc.
In order to dissect the impact of the said judgment, Lakshmikumaran & Sridharan is organizing a webinar on “SC Judgment on Software Royalty – End of a Battle Royale?” on 16 March 2021 (Tuesday) from 04:30 pm to 05:30 pm.
During the webinar, the speakers will discuss the following key aspects in relation to the judgment:
- Types of software transactions to which the ratio will be applicable
- Impact in cases where incremental rights in software like right to make modifications, customisation are granted to the user
- Applicability of Equalization Levy on payments made to non-resident software vendors
- Possibility of claiming refund of tax paid in the past by non-residents taxpayers/resident deductors
- Impact on Copyright Act and potential changes to be made in the distributor and end user license agreements
- Impact on other laws like Sales Tax/VAT, GST and Customs
Experts from Lakshmikumaran & Sridharan will be addressing the audience virtually to share finer nuances of the recent judgment. The team will also be taking questions from the audience on various issues that may arise as part of the deliberations.
Speakers:
V. Lakshmikumaran, Managing Partner
S. Vasudevan, Executive Partner