One of the most basic principles in international tax law, the permanent establishment (PE), is under strain amid the surge in hybrid and remote work options. For years, the test under Article 5 of the OECD Model Tax Convention was based on the notion of a "place of business" that is fixed and distinct. This model was tested during the COVID-19 pandemic as employees started working remotely in workplaces across the country, and it has already proved to be challenging: employe

Goods and Services Tax (“GST”) 2.0, introduced by the government, reduced the previous multi-tax structure to a two-slab structure of 5% and 18%, except for taxing sin goods at 40%.[1] It was aimed to significantly reduce the tax burden on the consumers by rationalising prices and lowering inflation. These objectives stand on the legal mandate of mandatorily passing on the benefit of tax rate reduction to consumers through a commensurate reduction in prices as required under

The long-standing workaround of neutralizing a tax liability has now come to an end. Earlier, non-residents could bypass the 5% ceiling under Section 44C of the Income Tax Act,1961 (“Act”) by attributing an expense entirely to their Indian branch and routing the claim through Section 37 to enjoy a full deduction. This position has been remedied by the Supreme Court’s recent ruling in CIT v. American Express Bank Ltd. (“American Express”).