The High Court held that a change in the approach of assessing ...

Tax assessing authority rejecting established transfer pricing method without justification creates cash flow uncertainty for businesses.

Case Laws     Income Tax

October 25, 2024

The High Court held that a change in the approach of assessing tax, without any statutory change, leads to uncertainty in cash flow and fund flow, which are crucial for commercial enterprises. Unless there are cogent reasons to discard the Transfer Pricing (TP) method adopted in earlier assessment years, the Transfer Pricing Officer (TPO) should consistently follow the method used for determining the Arm's Length Price (ALP) in prior years. The TPO erred in rejecting the Transactional Net Margin Method (TNMM) without sufficient justification, despite it being consistently used in the past six assessment years. The court concurred with the Tribunal's view that the Dispute Resolution Panel (DRP) erred in finding that the TPO provided justification for rejecting TNMM. The TPO's decision to adopt the residual "any other method" u/r 10B(1)(f) was unjustified, as recourse to this method is available only if none of the other methods are considered appropriate. However, the TPO provided no reasons for rejecting TNMM and did not discuss the applicability of other methods. The court found it difficult to accept that a business model involving marketing support on a commission basis is unique or warrants rejecting TNMM. The comparables used by the TPO, such as a non-compete arrangement.

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