Mumbai's Income Tax Appellate Tribunal recently ruled on whether a payment for packaged off-the-shelf software constitutes a royalty payment under the 1994 India-Singapore income tax treaty. The case involved Capgemini Business Services (India) Ltd. (Capgemini), which purchased packaged accounting software for its own use from a vendor resident in Singapore and claimed a deduction for the purchase. In reviewing Capgemini's return for the year concerned, the assessing officer took the position that the purchase was for the use of copyright and should have been subject to withholding tax for royalties. Since no tax was withheld, the deduction was denied and...