Supreme Court ruling on software payments

The issue of taxation on payments made for the use of software has been a subject matter of extensive debate and litigation for over two decades in India. The major dispute has been whether payments made for acquisition of an off-the shelf software is for the ‘copyright’ or ‘copyrighted article’ and accordingly will it be subject to tax as ‘royalty’. The Supreme Court in a batch of appeals pronounced its judgement on the same.

Grant Thornton Bharat hosted a webinar to discuss this Supreme Court ruling, its impact on taxation of software payments, IT/ITes sector and related aspects of equalisation levy and significant economic presence.

Watch the webinar here.

What is the way forward on this ruling? Know in our latest update. 

In an article in Livemint, Vikas Vasal discusses the recent Apex Court judgement relating to software payments to non-residents. He concludes by welcoming the ruling for settling a two-decade litigative issue.