Your India tax position,
aligned across borders.

A Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement (DTAA) is a treaty between India and another country that prevents the same income from being taxed in both. It does this by allocating taxing rights, capping withholding-tax rates on cross-border payments (like royalties, interest, and fees), and providing relief — usually a tax credit or exemption — for tax already paid in the other country. For a foreign-owned India entity, applying the right DTAA correctly is what stops profits, royalties, and service fees from being taxed twice. Claiming it requires a tax residency certificate and the correct filings.

India requires tax to be deducted at source on many cross-border payments — royalties, technical and professional fees, interest, and dividends. The rate is the lower of the rate under Indian law or the applicable DTAA, and remittances generally require a chartered accountant's certificate in Form 146 and a Form 145 filing. Getting the rate and certification right avoids both over-withholding (which strands cash) and under-withholding (which triggers disallowance, interest, and penalties).

A permanent establishment is a taxable presence that a foreign company can create in India — through a fixed place of business, a dependent agent who habitually concludes contracts, or certain service arrangements. If you create a PE, India can tax the profits attributable to it, often unexpectedly. Managing PE risk means structuring your contracting model, personnel, and activities so your India presence is taxed the way you intend, not the way an assessment officer reconstructs it after the fact.

Filing is compliance — reporting what already happened. Tax advisory is planning: setting the entity structure, treaty position, withholding approach, and transaction timing before the year unfolds, so the return reflects a deliberately efficient and defensible position. For cross-border businesses the gap is large, because most international-tax exposure (double taxation, wrong withholding, PE) is created by decisions made long before the return is due.

Profits typically move home as dividends, royalties, or service fees, and each has a different tax and treaty treatment plus FEMA conditions. The efficient route depends on your structure and the applicable DTAA — for example, treaty-capped withholding on dividends versus the deductibility and withholding profile of royalties or fees. We plan the mix and timing so repatriation is both treaty-efficient and FEMA-compliant, rather than defaulting to whatever's simplest.

Yes. We respond to queries, scrutiny notices, and assessments from the Indian tax department, represent your position before the authorities, and where double taxation arises we pursue relief through the DTAA's Mutual Agreement Procedure or the appellate route. Because we set the underlying position with documentation in mind, defending it is far more straightforward.