- Karnataka High Court ruled that customer support services provided to foreign affiliates qualify as an export of services, not intermediary services.
- The taxpayer, an Indian company, provides IT and customer support services to group companies globally.
- Foreign affiliates engaged the taxpayer to handle customer queries for e-commerce operations.
- The taxpayer classified these services as exports under the IGST Act and sought a refund, which was partially denied.
- The High Court found the taxpayer operates on a principal-to-principal basis, not as an intermediary.
- The court referenced the definition of intermediary in the IGST Act and previous judgments.
- It concluded that the taxpayer does not meet the criteria for being an intermediary as per the circular.
- The High Court authorized the refund for the taxpayer.
Source: taxathand.com
Note that this post was (partially) written with the help of AI. It is always useful to review the original source material, and where needed to obtain (local) advice from a specialist.
