Delayed TDS interest, foreign expert payments and bank guarantee charges: salary/TDS rulings upheld; s.44DA reimbursements remanded

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....Interest paid under s.201(1A) for delayed TDS remittance was held not compensatory and hence not deductible as business expenditure under s.37(1), following binding precedent; the disallowance was sustained. Payments to a foreign expert were held to exhibit employer-employee attributes; GST treatment was irrelevant, and the amounts were treated as salary requiring TDS under s.192, so disallowance under s.40(a)(i) for non-deduction was upheld. Disallowance of head-office staff reimbursements under s.44DA lacked a clear adjudication and was remitted to the AO for fresh decision with opportunity of hearing. Bank/performance guarantee charges were not "commission or brokerage" absent a principal-agent relationship, so disallowance under s.40(a) was deleted. Challenge to mere initiation of penalty under s.270A was held non-maintainable. - ITAT....