• Discusses copyright concepts and principles developed through judicial precedents impacting income taxation of copyright royalties.
• Provides a comparative study of Indian and foreign laws on copyright and neighbouring rights to understand the differing tax outcomes.
• Covers specific scenarios arising in payments for software, cinematographic films, broadcasts, and databases.
• Exhaustively discusses the software royalties’ controversy including,

(i)  Supreme Court Ruling in the Engineering Analysis Centre of Excellence

(ii)  Treaty practices worldwide as well as the OECD and UN Model Commentaries and  proposed changes to the UN Commentary

(iii) Analysis of Tax Rulings issued by the Australian Tax Office.

• Analyses the copyright royalties’ issues in broadcasting and the internet.
• Discusses the cross-border tax issues arising from the territorial nature of copyright and the foreign work versus foreign copyright conundrum.
• Deliberates on the question of the applicable law, the relevance of choice of law principles and the contentious effect on income-tax.

About Author

Ganesh Rajgopalan is a seasoned Chartered Accountant with 36 years of experience. He is an expert in the areas of taxation and manages tax audits and litigation on income-tax and indirect tax matters. His academic research interests presently are in the areas of taxation, copyright law, and international trade laws. He is a proficient author with several published research papers in leading journals and conferences of national and international repute. Mr Ganesh is an active participant and contributor to the knowledge building initiatives of leading professional bodies and research institutions including the Bombay Chartered Accountants’ Society and the Chamber of Tax Consultants. He was awarded the Heather Self Medal by Chartered Institute of Taxation, United Kingdom (CIOT) in 2013.