DT7710 - DT: The Gambia: double taxation agreement, Article 11: Dividends

(a) Dividends paid by a company which is a resident of the United Kingdom to a resident of The Gambia may be taxed in The Gambia.

(b) Where a resident of The Gambia is entitled to a tax credit in respect of such a dividend under paragraph (2) of this Article, tax may also be charged in the United Kingdom and according to the laws of the United Kingdom, on the aggregate of the amounts or value of that dividend and the amount of that tax credit at a rate not exceeding 15 per cent.

(c) Except as aforesaid dividends paid by a company which is a resident of the United Kingdom to a resident of The Gambia who is subject to tax in The Gambia on them shall be exempt from any tax in the United Kingdom which is chargeable on dividends.

(2) A resident of The Gambia who receives dividends from a company which is a resident of the United Kingdom shall, subject to the provisions of paragraph (3) of this Article and provided he is subject to tax in The Gambia on the dividends, be entitled to the tax credit in respect thereof to which an individual resident in the United Kingdom would have been entitled had he received those dividends, and to the payment of any excess of that tax credit over his liability to United Kingdom tax.

(3) Paragraph (2) of this Article shall not apply where the recipient of the dividend is a company which either alone or together with one or more associated companies controls directly or indirectly at least 10 per cent of the voting power in the company paying the dividend. For the purpose of this paragraph two companies shall be deemed to be associated if one is controlled directly or indirectly by the other, or both are controlled directly or indirectly by a third company.

(4) Dividends paid by a company resident in The Gambia to a resident of the United Kingdom may be taxed in the United Kingdom. If the recipient of the dividends is subject to tax in the United Kingdom in respect thereof they shall be exempt from any tax in The Gambia which is chargeable on dividends in addition to the tax chargeable in respect of the profits or income of the company.

(5) The term `dividends` as used in this Article means income from shares or other rights, not being debt-claims, participating in profits, as well as income from other corporate rights assimilated to income from shares by the taxation law of the territory of which the company making the distribution is a resident and also includes any other item of income (other than interest relieved from tax under Article 12 of this Convention) which, under the law of the territory of which the company paying the dividends is a resident, is treated as a dividend or distribution of a company.

(6) If the recipient of a dividend is a company which owns 10 per cent or more of the class of shares in respect of which the dividend is paid then paragraphs (1) and (2) or, as the case may be, paragraph (4) of this Article shall not apply to the dividend to the extent that it can have been paid only out of profits which the company paying the dividend earned or other income which it received in a period ending twelve months or more before the relevant date. For the purposes of this paragraph the term `relevant date` means the date on which the beneficial owner of the dividend became the owner of 10 per cent or more of the class of shares in question.

(7) The provisions of paragraphs (1) and (2) or, as the case may be, paragraph (4) of this Article shall not apply if the recipient of the dividends, being a resident of one of the territories, has in the other territory, of which the company paying the dividends is a resident, a permanent establishment and the holding by virtue of which the dividends are paid is effectively connected with the business carried on through such permanent establishment.

(8) Where a company which is a resident of one of the territories derives profits or income from sources within the other territory, the Government of that other territory shall not impose any form of taxation on dividends paid by the company to persons not resident in that other territory, or any tax in the nature of an undistributed profits tax on undistributed profits of the company, by reason of the fact that those dividends or undistributed profits represent, in whole or in part, profits or income so derived.