Sub-licensing of live feed of events whether copyright subject to royalty under Income Tax Act, 1961

Facts:

Assessee non-resident was charged tax on sub-licensing revenue alleging these to arise/accrue from India, holding these to be akin to copyrights taxable under Income Tax Act, 1961 under Section 9(1)(vi) or scientific processes. Aggrieved assessee went in higher appeal -

Held in favour of the assessee that the intent of the legislature was to restrict copyrights only to literary, artistic or musical works. It does not extend to live feeds as in the case of the assessee. Neither are these scientific processes to trigger royalty under Income Tax Act, 1961. The topic is no longer res integra.

Applied:

Fox Network Group Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021 TaxPub(DT) 0558 (Del-Trib)

Delhi Race Club (1940) Ltd. 2015 TaxPub(DT) 0359 (Del-HC)

Neo Sports broadcast (P.) Ltd. 2012 TaxPub(DT) 0968 (Mum-Trib)

Nimbus Communications Ltd. 2013 TaxPub(DT) 0253 (Mum-Trib)

Taj TV Ltd. (ITA no. 1079/M/2008 and ITA No. 3702/M/2005 (Mumbai-Trib.)

MSM Satellite (Singapore) Pte. Ltd. 2019 TaxPub(DT) 3252 (Bom-HC)

Set India private Limited (ITA No. 1347 of 2013 (Bombay)

Set India private Limited (ITA No. 4372 of 2004 (Mumbai-Trib.)

Star India Private Limited (ITA no. 1536/Mum/2005))

Taj TV Limited (2016) 161 ITD 339 (Mumbai-Trib.) : 2016 TaxPub(DT) 3611 (Mum-Trib)

Turner Broadcasting System Asia Pacific Inc. 2020 TaxPub(DT) 4101 (Del-Trib)

ESS Distribution (Mauritius)

Ed. Note: The list of cases make an interesting reading on this topic.

Case: ESS (Formerly known as ESPN Star Sports) v. ACIT 2023 TaxPub(DT) 1164 (Del-Trib)