{"question":"Is an Indian liaison office a permanent establishment?","url":"https://lrlabs.ai/q/liaison-office-india-permanent-establishment","law_as_at":"14 Aug 2026","facts_as_stated":{"officeType":"liaison","premisesAvailable":"yes","concludesContracts":"none"},"meta":{"engine":"deterministic","llm_in_path":false,"corridor":"India–USA","latency_ms":0.36,"determinate_screen":true},"answer":{"chips":[{"label":"Fixed Place PE — low","level":"low"}],"plain_line":"No limb is engaged on these facts.","paragraph":"The liaison office stays within preparatory/auxiliary scope — ¶3(e) deems it not a PE (UAE Exchange).","changers":["the agent's contract role concluding contracts → Fixed Place PE rises low → medium"],"deciding_facts":[],"determinacy":{"mechanical":1,"open":0,"resolved_by_composition":0,"index":1.0},"assembled":"deterministic"},"findings":[{"pe_type":"fixed","pe_label":"Fixed Place PE","risk":"low","unsettled":false,"conclusion":"LIAISON_PREP_AUX","pinpoint":"Article 5(3)(e)","rationale":"[Article 5(3)(e), India–USA DTAA (1990)] A liaison office confined to support activities — information, advertising, coordination — is deemed NOT a PE under ¶3(e): the activities are 'only supportive of the main business', not one of its main functions (UAE Exchange, SC 2020; Nokia Networks OY, ITAT SB 2018 — advertising-only LO). Judgment residue (for the case-law analysis): whether the LO's actual conduct stayed within the RBI permission — the exclusion is only as good as the facts (UAE Exchange's 'circumscribed' finding).","missing_facts":[],"authorities":[{"citation":"ADIT v. E-Funds IT Solution Inc, (2018) 13 SCC 294 (SC, 24.10.2017)","pinpoint":"para 11 (extracting the Del HC's paras 33-34, affirmed)","element":"at_disposal","proposition":"a place is at the enterprise's disposal when it has the right to use it and control thereupon — ownership or mere access is neither necessary nor sufficient (Del HC formulation, adopted)","disposition":"taxpayer"},{"citation":"ADIT v. E-Funds IT Solution Inc, (2018) 13 SCC 294 (SC, 24.10.2017)","pinpoint":"para 16","element":"at_disposal","proposition":"where no part of the enterprise's main business and revenue-earning activity is carried on through an Indian fixed place at its disposal, and the Indian entity renders only enabling support, outsourcing creates no fixed place PE","disposition":"taxpayer"},{"citation":"ADIT v. E-Funds IT Solution Inc, (2018) 13 SCC 294 (SC, 24.10.2017)","pinpoint":"para 10","element":"at_disposal","proposition":"the burden of proving that a foreign assessee has a PE in India is initially on the Revenue","disposition":"framework"}]}],"proof":null,"exposure_map":[],"overall_risk":"low"}