ITAT affirmed deletion of an income addition and ruled in favour...

ITAT affirmed deletion of an income addition and ruled in favour of the taxpayer, holding that reimbursements received from AEs for IT/support services constituted cost-to-cost allocations without profit and therefore did not constitute Fee for Included Services under the India-USA DTAA. The Tribunal found the "make-available" nexus absent because the services (desktop application training and routine IT administration) did not enable AEs to independently exploit any proprietary technology, and the AO failed to make requisite enquiries or rebut the taxpayer's factual record or the Master Inter-Company Services Agreement. Applying the coordinate bench precedent, the Tribunal concluded the AO's reliance on the taxpayer's own submissions was insufficient and deleted the addition.