{"query":"What is the India–Saudi Arabia treaty withholding rate on royalties and fees for","matches":[{"id":"auto_wht_saudi_arabia","question":"What is the India–Saudi Arabia treaty withholding rate on royalties and fees for technical services?","answer":"Royalty: 10% of the gross amount — Article 12 (Royalties), India–Saudi Arabia DTAA (as amended through 20 Aug 2026). Equipment-use royalties sit inside the royalty definition and take the same 10%. This treaty has NO fees-for-technical-services article: FTS falls to business profits (PE required) or other income on the treaty's own terms — a structural feature, not an omission. The treaty contains NO FTS/FIS article — verified against the full notified text: Art 12 covers Royalties only, and the word 'technical' appears nowhere in the Convention (articles run 1–29: 11=Income from debt-claims, 12=Royalties, 13=Capital Gains, 22=Other Income). The omission is deliberate: signature Protocol para 15 states verbatim that 'the two Contracting States will review the provisions of this Convention after a period of 5 years from the date on which this Convention enters into force in order to consider the inclusion of an Article on \"Fees for Technical Services\" within the scope of this Convention' — no such article has ever been added through Aug 2026. Consequence: technical/managerial/consultancy fees paid to a Saudi resident fall under Art 7 Business Profits (taxable in India only with an Indian PE) or Art 22 Other Income (residence-state-only taxation), overriding s.9(1)(vii)/115A, per the treaty-override position PwC also footnotes ('In absence of specific provision, it may be treated as business profits or independent personal services'). make_available is 'absent' in the trivial sense — there is no FTS article for it to sit in. Gate: the treaty rate applies only through s.393(2) Sl. No. 17 → s.2(90)(c) with the s.159(8) TRC + Form 10F gate met; domestic comparator 20% + surcharge/cess (s.207(2)). Notes: NO FTS article at all — one of the few Indian treaties (with UAE pre-2007 understanding, Philippines, Thailand pattern) where technical service fees escape Indian source taxation absent a PE; Protocol para 15 proves the omission was deliberate and bilaterally agreed; Article 11 is titled 'Income from debt-claims', not 'Interest' — Islamic-finance drafting; rate 10%; Equipment royalties folded into the single 10% royalty rate via the Art 12(3) definition — no equipment/general split; Protocol para 8: profits from exportation of merchandise to the other State are NOT taxable there even where a PE exists — unusual PE-attribution carve-out; Protocol para 11: Zakat is treated as a tax on income for treaty purposes; Art 22 Other Income gives exclusive residence-state taxation ('shall be taxable only') — combined with no FTS article, this is the fallback that kills Indian WHT on unclassified service fees.","pinpoint":"Article 12 (Royalties), India–Saudi Arabia DTAA","confidence":"verified","as_at":"14 Aug 2026","match_score":2,"treaty":"India–Saudi Arabia"}],"engine":"deterministic","llm_in_path":false}