Indian Supreme Court Holds Section 44C Cap Applies to Head Office Expenditure Even if Incurred Exclusively for Indian Branches

In a decision dated 15 December 2025, the Supreme Court of India considered whether Section 44C (deduction of head office expenditure for non-residents) applies only to “common” head office expenses or also to expenses incurred by the head office exclusively for Indian branches/operations.

The Court held that Section 44C applies to “head office expenditure” regardless of whether it is common expenditure or expenditure incurred exclusively for the Indian branches, and that the term “attributa…