DT3470 - DT: Belgium: double taxation agreement SI 1987 No.2053, Article 21: Offshore activities

(1) The provisions of this Article shall apply notwithstanding any other provision of this Convention where activities are carried on offshore in a Contracting State in connection with the exploration or exploitation of the sea-bed and subsoil and their natural resources situated in that State (in this Article referred to as `offshore activities`).

(2) An enterprise of a Contracting State which carries on offshore activities in the other Contracting State shall, subject to paragraph (3) of this Article, be deemed to be carrying on business in that other State through a permanent establishment situated therein.

(3) Profits from the transportation of supplies or personnel by a ship or aircraft to a location where offshore activities are being carried on, or from the operation of tugboats or anchor handling vessels in connection with such activities, shall be taxable only in the Contracting State in which the place of effective management of the enterprise is situated.

(4) A resident of a Contracting State who carries on offshore activities in the other Contracting State, which consist of professional services or other activities of an independent character, shall be deemed to be performing those activities from a fixed base in that other State.

(5)

(a) Subject to sub-paragraphs (b) and (c) of this paragraph, salaries, wages and similar remuneration derived by a resident of a Contracting State in respect of an employment connected with offshore activities in the other Contracting State shall, to the extent that the duties are performed offshore in that other State, be taxable only in that other State.

(b) Subject to sub-paragraph (c) of this paragraph, salaries, wages and similar remuneration derived in respect of an employment exercised aboard a ship or aircraft engaged in the transportation of supplies or personnel to a location where offshore activities are being carried on, or in respect of an employment exercised aboard a tugboat or anchor handling vessel in connection with such activities, shall be taxable only in the Contracting State in which the place of effective management of the enterprise is situated.

(c) Sub-paragraphs (a) and (b) of this paragraph shall apply only where documentary evidence is produced which is satisfactory to the competent authority of the other Contracting State that tax has been paid in the Contracting State which has the sole right to tax the remuneration referred to in sub-paragraphs (a) and (b). Otherwise the domestic laws of the Contracting States relating to the taxation of such remuneration shall apply and double taxation, if any, shall be relieved in accordance with Article 23 of this Convention.