{"query":"Are cost-to-cost secondment reimbursements to a foreign group entity taxable as ","matches":[{"id":"centrica_secondment","question":"Do seconded employees create a service PE?","answer":"A real risk — where secondees remain employees of the overseas entity in substance (lien on employment retained, the Indian entity unable to modify the relationship), the furnishing-of-services limb can be engaged through them: Centrica India Offshore (2014) 364 ITR 336 (Del HC), applying Morgan Stanley's lien test. Subject to the treaty's service-PE day count.","pinpoint":"Centrica India Offshore Pvt Ltd v. CIT, (2014) 364 ITR 336 (Del HC)","confidence":"judicial","as_at":"14 Aug 2026","match_score":1,"note":"Delhi HC ratio; SLP outcomes do not merge HC reasoning into declared SC law (Kunhayammed discipline).","quote":"The employment relationship between the secondee and the overseas organization is at no point terminated, nor is CIOP given any authority to even modify that relationship.","quote_string_verified":true,"quote_source":"ledger:CENTRICA"},{"id":"secondment_fis_conflict","question":"Are cost-to-cost secondment reimbursements to a foreign group entity taxable as FTS/FIS?","answer":"Contested — and now leaning revenue-ward. CIT v. Ernst & Young U.S. LLP (Delhi HC, 18 Jun 2026) held that cost-to-cost secondment recharges ARE fees for included services under India–US Art 12(4)(b): the make-available test was met where transmitted knowledge could be applied independently, the foreign entity remained the real employer (termination power, social security, return obligation), and the 'salary reimbursement' label was not determinative; Centrica (2014, SLP dismissed) was found analogous. The judgment did NOT engage the taxpayer-favourable Marks & Spencer Reliance / Flipkart Internet / Abbey line, whose status is uncertain. The engine carries this as a CONFLICT, not settled law. Separate exposures: service PE by secondment (Art 5(2)(l), Morgan Stanley), and the GST reverse-charge leg (Northern Operating Systems, read down by CBIC Instruction 05/2023-GST).","pinpoint":"Article 12(4)(b) India–US; CIT v. Ernst & Young U.S. LLP (Del HC, 18 Jun 2026)","confidence":"contested","as_at":"14 Aug 2026","match_score":1,"quote":"make available technical knowledge, experience, skill, know-how, or processes","quote_string_verified":true,"quote_source":"rule:WHT.SECONDMENT-CONFLICT.INUS"}],"engine":"deterministic","llm_in_path":false}