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2019 (4) TMI 1812 - AT - Service TaxClassification of services - Club or Association Service or not - commencement and carry on copyright business in sound recording - HELD THAT:- From the provisions of Section 33, 33A and 34 of the Copyright Act, 1957, the scheme in which the appellants are operating is quite evident. From the second proviso to Section 33(1) it is quite evident that grant of business license in respect of certain category of works could be done only through the registered copyright society. Thus Section 33 (1) provides for registration of the said societies - From the provisions of Section 18 and 19, it is quite evident that every owner of the copyright could have assigned the right to any other person by way of writing subject to the terms and conditions as may stated by the assignor. But once assigned in respect of respect of the right assigned the assignee becomes the owner of the right to the extent of assignment. In the present case the copyright owners have assigned the right in copyright to the appellant, society registered under the Copyright Act. The appellant society is thus administering the right of owner assigned to it as if it is the owner of the copyright by issuance of the license for utilization of the copyrighted material. They in terms of section 34 of the Copyright Act, collect the fees in pursuance of the licenses issued by it under Section 30 to the users of the copyrighted material and share the same with the owner of copyright after deducting its expense. The appellants are rendering “Copyright Services” as the assignee of copyright by the owner to them in terms Section 18 as a society registered under Section 33. In fact they are paying service tax under that category. For payment of the service tax entire amount collected by the appellants from the users is taken for determination of the taxable value and service tax discharged on that. Having done so, there are no merits in the demand of service tax under the category of “Club or Association Services”. Appeal allowed - decided in favor of appellant.
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