What is the India–United Arab Emirates treaty withholding rate on royalties and fees for technical services?

Royalty: 10% of the gross amount — Article 12 (Royalties), India–United Arab Emirates 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 India–UAE treaty has NO fees-for-technical-services / fees-for-included-services article at all. The article sequence runs Art 11 Interest -> Art 12 Royalties -> Art 13 Capital gains -> Art 14 Independent personal services; there is no Art 12A and none was inserted by the 2007 or 2012 Protocols. Because no FTS article exists, no 'make available' condition exists either — the concept is simply absent, not merely unmet (contrast India–US Art 12(4)(b) and India–UK Art 13(4)(c), where make-available IS in the treaty text). Consequence: service fees paid by an Indian payer to a UAE resident are tested under Art 7 (Business profits) if attributable to a PE, under Art 14 if independent personal services from a fixed base, and otherwise under Art 22(1) (Other income), whose operative words are: 'Subject to the provisions of paragraph (2), items of income of a resident of a Contracting State, wherever arising, which are not expressly dealt with in the foregoing articles of this Agreement, shall be taxable only in that Contracting State.' Art 22 is a residence-exclusive ('shall be taxable only') clause, not an India–Thailand-style source-taxing residual, so absent a PE/fixed base India has no taxing right over pure FTS. This is settled in Indian tribunal practice (ITAT Chennai and ITAT Delhi rulings deleting FTS additions on India–UAE facts). Caution: some practitioner rate charts wrongly print '10%' in the UAE FTS column by carrying the royalty rate across; PwC's India WHT chart correctly shows 'N/A' with footnote 4 ('In absence of specific provision, it may be treated as business profits or independent personal services under respective tax treaties'). 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: EQUIPMENT IS NOT A SEPARATE LANE. Unlike India–US (15% general under Art 12(2)(a)(ii) vs 10% equipment-only under Art 12(2)(b)), India–UAE Art 12 has one flat 10% and swallows equipment rental inside the Art 12(3) definition. Any engine that models 'equipment rate' as a distinct field must record 10 = same_as_general here, not 'limb absent'.; NO FTS ARTICLE AT ALL — the single most consequential feature of this treaty. Do not report make_available as 'not required' or 'unmet'; the whole article is missing. FTS falls to Art 7 / Art 14 / Art 22(1), and Art 22(1) is residence-exclusive ('taxable only in that Contracting State'), so India generally cannot tax pure technical service fees to a UAE resident without a PE or fixed base.; ROYALTY DEFINITION CARVE-OUT: Art 12(3) expressly excludes payments in respect of operation of mines or quarries or exploitation of petroleum or other natural resources — those are outside Art 12 and are reinforced by Protocol para (i). A 10% royalty answer is wrong for extractive-sector payments.; VERSION / SUPERSEDED-TEXT TRAP: many freely circulating 'India–UAE DTAA' PDFs are the pre-2007 or pre-2013 consolidated text. Art 4 (residence), Art 13 (capital gains) and Art 28 (EOI) differ materially by vintage; Art 12 does not. Always check whether the copy states 'as amended by Notification SO 2001(E) dated 28-11-2007' AND 'Notification No. 29/2013 dated 12-4-2013'. The copy relied on here carries the 2007 amendment stamp; the 2012/2013 changes were separately verified and do not affect Art 12.; DATE TRAP: the treaty is frequently mis-dated. Signature is 29 April 1992 (New Delhi, corresponding to 27 Shawwal 1412 H), entry into force 22 September 1993, Indian notification GSR 710(E) dated 18 November 1993. '1989' and '1993 signature' both appear in secondary write-ups and are wrong.; TREATY-ACCESS GATES, not rate gates: Art 29 LOB (main-purpose test on entity creation, plus 'legal entities not having bona fide business activities'), the MLI PPT from FY 2020-21, and Indian domestic s.90(4)/(5) TRC + Form 10F requirements. Since UAE historically imposed no personal income tax, TRC/beneficial-ownership disputes — not rate disputes — are where India–UAE royalty claims actually fail. CBDT has separately clarified PPT application prospectively.; Art 12(2) benefit is conditioned on the recipient being the BENEFICIAL OWNER; Art 12(4) turns off the cap where the right/property is effectively connected with an Indian PE or fixed base, pushing the income to Art 7/Art 14 at net-basis rates.; Domestic-rate interaction: s.115A royalty/FTS rate rose from 10% to 20% (plus surcharge and cess) with effect from AY 2024-25, so for the first time the 10% treaty cap materially undercuts domestic law for royalties — increasing the practical stakes of Art 12 eligibility and of the FTS gap..