DT4158 - DT: Bulgaria: double taxation agreement, Article 9: Dividends

1. Dividends derived from a company which is a resident of a Contracting State by a resident of the other Contracting State may be taxed in that other State.
   
   
2. However, such dividends may also be taxed in the Contracting State of which the company paying the dividends is a resident, and according to the laws of that State, but if the recipient is the beneficial owner of the dividends the tax so charged shall not exceed 10 per cent of the gross amount of the dividends. However, the provisions of this paragraph shall not affect the taxation of the company in respect of the profits out of which the dividends are paid.
   
   
3. The term `dividends` as used in this Article means income from shares, `jouissance` shares or `jouissance` rights, mining shares, founders' shares or other rights, not being debt-claims, participating in profits, as well as income from other corporate rights which is subjected to the same taxation treatment as income from shares by the laws of the State of which the company making the distribution is a resident.
   
   
4. The provisions of paragraphs (1) and (2) of this Article shall not apply if the beneficial owner of the dividends, being a resident of a Contracting State, carries on business in the other Contracting State of which the company paying the dividends is a resident, through a permanent establishment situated therein, or performs in that other State professional services from a fixed base situated therein, and the holding in respect of which the dividends are paid is effectively connected with such permanent establishment or fixed base. In such a case the provisions of Article 7 or Article 13 of this Convention, as the case may be, shall apply.
   
   
5. Where a company which is a resident of a Contracting State derives profits or income from the other Contracting State that other State may not impose any tax on the dividends paid by the company, except insofar as such dividends are paid to a resident of that other State or insofar as the holding in respect of which the dividends are paid is effectively connected with a permanent establishment or a fixed base situated in that other State, nor subject the company's undistributed profits to a tax on undistributed profits, even if the dividends paid or the undistributed profits consist wholly or partly of profits or income arising in that other State.