International law firms could come under pressure to pay more tax for operating in India following a tribunal’s ruling last week that Linklaters owes taxes on fees earned on work that was referred from India, writes The American Lawyer.
Linklaters, like other foreign law firms, is barred from having offices in India, but the Mumbai Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) applied a retrospective 2010 amendment to Indian tax laws deeming foreign service providers to have a “permanent establishment” or “fixed base” if their employees – like many international lawyers – spend more than 90 days a year in India.
