The Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) adjudicated on various ...

ITAT rules on transfer pricing issues: segmentation, tested parties, brand fees, comparables, warranty income, expense provisions.

December 2, 2024

Case Laws     Income Tax     AT

The Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) adjudicated on various transfer pricing issues concerning an assessee. Regarding segmentation of business activities, the ITAT upheld the Transfer Pricing Officer's (TPO) approach of treating the UDS and CM segments as a composite unit for determining the arm's length price, dismissing the assessee's claim of separate segments. However, on the issue of rejecting overseas associated enterprises as tested parties, the ITAT remanded the matter to the TPO for re-adjudication after obtaining necessary details and providing due opportunity to the assessee. The ITAT deleted the TPO's upward adjustment for brand development fees, relying on coordinate bench rulings that such expenditures are not international transactions. For the business processing service segment, the ITAT excluded Infosys Technologies Ltd. and HSCC India Ltd. from the list of comparables and restored the matter to the TPO for recalculation of adjustments. Regarding advances received for extended warranties, the ITAT held that such amounts become taxable income only in the year of maturity of the warranty contracts, not the year of sale, to avoid double taxation. The ITAT also remitted the issue of disallowance of reversed expense provisions to the Assessing Officer for re-adjudication after obtaining necessary details from the assessee.

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