Treaty between Spain and US – Spanish National Court holds payments for software subject to 10% withholding tax (general rate for "other royalties")

The Spanish National Court gave its decision on 15 April 2010 (recently published) in case number 440/2008. Details of the decision are summarized below.

(a) Facts. During the years 2003, 2004 and 2005, a Spanish software company made several payments to its US parent company for a non-exclusive license to copy and distribute software programs (collectively, "payments for software"). The Spanish subsidiary considered the software to fall under the concept of "…