No TDS required on import of shrink-wrapped software: Supreme Court Top Searches No TDS required on import of shrink-wrapped software: Supreme Court Lubna Kably / TNN / Updated: Mar 3, 2021, 08:10 IST FacebookTwitterLinkedinEMail MUMBAI: The Supreme Court (SC) on Tuesday ruled that payments made by resident Indian end-users or distributors (such as technology companies) to overseas suppliers on import of ‘shrink-wrapped’ software – generally known as off-the-shelf software, is not a ‘Royalty’ payment. Thus, no withholding tax obligations arise in India, against such payment. During assessment and at various levels of judicial appeals, payments made for import of shrink-wrapped software to overseas suppliers was held assessable to tax as ‘Royalty’ under section 9(1)(vi) of the I-T Act and Article 12 of the respective tax treaties. This classification as ‘Royalty’ required tax to be deducted at source (TDS) when making payment to the overseas suppliers.