THE COMMISSIONER OF INCOME TAX - INTERNATIONAL TAXATION -1 vs AMAZON WEB SERVICES, INC

Judgment text excerpt

IN THE HIGH COURT OF DELHI AT NEW DELHI % Judgment delivered on: 29.05.2025 + ITA 150/2025 & CM APPL. 29405/2025 THE COMMISSIONER OF INCOME TAX - INTERNATIONAL TAXATION -1 ....Appellant Versus AMAZON WEB SERVICES, INC ....Respondent AND + ITA 154/2025 & CM APPL. 29646/2025 THE COMMISSIONER OF INCOME TAX - INTERNATIONAL TAXATION -1 .....Appellant Versus AMAZON WEB SERVICES, INC .....Respondent Advocates who appeared in this case: For the Appellant : Mr. Ruchir Bhatia, SSC, Mr. Anant Mann, JSC Ms. Aditi Sabharwal and Mr. Abhishek Anand, Advocates for the Revenue. For the Respondent: Mr. Porus Kaka, Sr. Advocate with Mr. Rohit Jain, Mr. Aniket D. Agrawal, Mr. Manish Kanth, Ms. Manisha Sharma, Advocates for the Assessee. CORAM HON’BLE MR JUSTICE VIBHU BAKHRU HON’BLE MR JUSTICE TEJAS KARIA JUDGMENT Signature Not Verified Digitally Signed By:TARUN RANA ITA Nos.150/2025 & 154/2025 Page 1 of 36 Signing Date:29.05.2025 15:38:55 VIBHU BAKHRU, J. 1. The Revenue has filed the present appeals under Section 260A of the Income Tax Act, 1961 [the Act] impugning a common order dated 01.08.2023 passed by the learned Income Tax Appellate Tribunal [the Tribunal] allowing the appeals, being ITA No.522/Del/2023 and ITA No.523/Del/2023, in respect of assessment years [AYs] 2014-15 and 2016-17, respectively. The respondent [Assessee] had preferred the said appeals against orders dated 27.01.2023 and 24.01.2023 passed by the Assessing Officer [AO] under Section 147 read with Section 144C(13) of the Act in respect of AYs 2014-15 and 2016-17. 2. The Assessee is a company incorporated in the United States of America and is a tax resident of that country. The Assessee had received certain sums of money from Indian entities for rendering cloud computing services, which, according to the AO are charg