ITAT held that receipts from sale of standardized software and...

ITAT held that receipts from sale of standardized software and incidental support and maintenance services received by the taxpayer from its Indian customer do not constitute "royalty" under the Income-tax Act or Article 12(3) of the India-Ireland DTAA. The tribunal emphasised the contractual provision establishing the supplier's pre-existing proprietary rights in the software and related materials, and that no transfer of copyright or reproduction rights to the customer occurred. Consequently, the assessing officer's inclusion of those receipts as royalty was unsustainable; the addition was reversed and deleted, and the tax treatment of the receipts as non-royalty income was affirmed.

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