Indian Tax Tribunal Holds MFN Clause Under Tax Treaty with Sweden Triggered Without Formal Notification

The Mumbai Income Tax Appellate Tribunal recently issued a decision concerning the application of the MFN clause in the 1997 India-Sweden tax treaty in relation to fees for technical services (FTS) and the make available test under the 1998 India-Portugal tax treaty.

The case concerns a Swedish company that received fees from India for rendering consultancy and IT support services. As with a similar past case, the Swedish company did not consider the fees to be taxable income because, based …