DT7212 - DT: Finland: double taxation agreement, Article 13: Royalties

Article 13(1), (3), (5) were substituted and Article 13(6) was inserted by SI 1991/2878 as below with effect from 1 January 1992 in Finland, and in the UK from 1 April 1992 for corporation tax purposes and 6 April 1992 for income tax purposes. The current Article 13 is as follows:

(1) Royalties arising in a Contracting State which are derived and beneficially owned by a resident of the other Contracting State shall be taxable only in that other State.

(2) The term 'royalties' as used in this Article means payments of any kind received as a consideration for the use of, or the right to use, any copyright of literary, artistic or scientific work (including cinematograph films, and films or tapes for radio or television broadcasting), any patent, trade mark, design or model, plan, secret formula or process, or for the use of, or the right to use, industrial, commercial or scientific equipment, or for information concerning industrial, commercial or scientific experience.

(3) The provisions of paragraph (1) of this Article shall not apply if the beneficial owner of the royalties, being a resident of a Contracting State, carries on business in the other Contracting State in which the royalties arise, through a permanent establishment situated therein, or performs in that other State independent personal services from a fixed base situated therein, and the right or property in respect of which the royalties are paid is effectively connected with such permanent establishment or fixed base. In such a case the provisions of Article 8 or Article 15, as the case may be, shall apply.

(4) Without prejudice to the provisions of paragraph (5) of this Article, any provision of the law of a Contracting State which requires royalties paid by a company to be left out of account as a deduction in computing the company's taxable profits as being a distribution shall not operate in relation to royalties paid to a resident of the other Contracting State. The preceding sentence shall not however apply to royalties derived and beneficially owned by a company which is a resident of that other Contracting State where:

(a) the same persons participate directly or indirectly in the management or control of the company paying the royalties and the company beneficially owning the royalties; and
(b) more than 50 per cent of the voting power in the company beneficially owning the royalties is controlled directly or indirectly by a person or persons resident in the Contracting State in which the company paying the royalties is resident.

(5) Where, owing to a special relationship between the payer and the beneficial owner or between both of them and some other person, the amount of the royalties paid exceeds, for whatever reason, the amount which would have been agreed upon by the payer and the beneficial owner in the absence of such relationship, the provisions of this Article shall apply only to the last-mentioned amount. In that case, the excess part of the payments shall remain taxable accordingly to the law of each Contracting State, due regard being had to the other provisions of this Convention.

(6) The provisions of this Article shall not apply if the right or property giving rise to the royalties was created or assigned mainly for the purpose of taking advantage of this Article and not for bona fide commercial reasons.