GE Group had set up a liaison office in India to act as a communication channel between the foreign enterprise and its customers in India. The tax department conducted an investigation at the local office, and found it was carrying out certain impermissible income-generating activities in India.
The department found various expatriates were acting as business heads for Indian operations and certain employees were actively involved in concluding sales for the foreign entities of GE in India.
The department alleged that it could be a permanent establishment and thus taxable.
The tax department adduced the details of various expatriate employees of GE available on LinkedIn as additional evidence in this case and produced it during the proceedings before the Delhi bench of the Income-Tax appellate tribunal.
The tribunal passed an interim order admitting the information as additional evidence. Whether a PE existed or not was to be decided in another hearing.
However, the interim order has been stayed by the jurisdictional high court, barring
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