Budget 2020-21 + FINANCE BILL, 2020

Amendment for providing attribution of profit to Permanent Establishment in Safe Harbour Rules under section 92CB and in Advance Pricing Agreement under section 92CC

Section 92CB of the Act empowers the Central Board of Direct Taxes (Board) for making safe harbour rules (SHR) to which the determination of the arm's length price (ALP) under section 92C or section 92CA of the Act shall be subject to. As per Explanation to said section the term “safe harbour” means circumstances in which the Income-tax Authority shall accept the transfer price declared by the assessee. This section was inserted in the Act to reduce the number of transfer pricing audits and prolonged disputes especially in case of relatively smaller assessees. Besides reduction of disputes, the SHR provides certainty as well.

Further, section 92CC of the Act empowers the Board to enter into an advance pricing agreement (APA) with any person, determining the ALP or specifying the manner in which the ALP is to be determined, in relation to an international transaction to be entered into by that person. APA provides tax certainty in determination of ALP for five future years as well as for four earlier years (Rollback).

SHR provides tax certainty for relatively smaller cases for future years on general terms, while APA provides tax certainty on case to case basis not only for future years but also Rollback years. Both SHR and the APA have been successful in reducing litigation in determination of the ALP.

It has been represented that the attribution of profits to the PE of a non-resident under clause (i) of sub-section (1) of section 9 of the Act in accordance with rule 10 of the Rules also results in avoidable disputes in a number of cases. In order to provide certainty, the attribution of income in case of a non-resident person to the PE is also required to be clearly covered under the provisions of the SHR and the APA.

In view of the above, it is proposed to amend section 92CB and section 92CC of the Act to cover determination of attribution to PE within the scope of SHR and APA.

With respect to section 92CB, the amendment will take effect from 1st April, 2020 and will, accordingly, apply in relation to the assessment year 2020-21 and subsequent assessment years.

With respect to section 92CC, the amendment will take effect from 1st April, 2020 and therefore will apply to an APA entered into on or after 1st April, 2020.

[Clauses 43 & 44]

Budget 2020-21 + FINANCE BILL, 2020