DT7303 - DT: France: double taxation agreement, Article 4: Permanent Establishment

This agreement applies for periods before the new comprehensive agreement has effect (see DT7250).

(1) For the purposes of this Convention, the term `permanent establishment` means a fixed place of business in which the business of the enterprise is wholly or partly carried on.

(2) The term `permanent establishment` shall include especially:

(a) a place of management;

(b) branch;

(d) a factory;

(e) a workshop;

(f) a mine, quarry or other place of extraction of natural resources;

(g)a building site or construction or assembly project which exists for more than twelve months.

(3) The term `permanent establishment` shall not be deemed to include:

(a) the use of facilities solely for the purpose of storage, display or delivery of goods or merchandise belonging to the enterprise;

(b) the maintenance of a stock of goods or merchandise belonging to the enterprise solely for the purpose of storage, display or delivery;

(c) the maintenance of a stock of goods or merchandise belonging to the enterprise solely for the purpose of processing by another enterprise;

(d) the maintenance of a fixed place of business solely for the purpose of purchasing goods or merchandise, or for collecting information, for the enterprise;

(e) the maintenance of a fixed place of business solely for the purpose of advertising, for the supply of information, for scientific research or for similar activities which have a preparatory or auxiliary character, for the enterprise.

(4) A person acting in a Contracting State on behalf of an enterprise of the other Contracting State- other than an agent of an independent status to whom paragraph (5) applies- shall be deemed to be a permanent establishment in the first-mentioned State if he has, and habitually exercises in that State, an authority to conclude contracts in the name of the enterprise, unless his activities are limited to the purchase of goods or merchandise for the enterprise.

(5) An enterprise of a Contracting State shall not be deemed to have a permanent establishment in the other Contracting State merely because it carries on business in that other State through a broker, general commission agent or any other agent of an independent status, where such persons are acting in the ordinary course of their business.

(6) The fact that a company which is a resident of a Contracting State controls or is controlled by a company which is a resident of the other Contracting State, or which carries on business in that other State (whether through a permanent establishment or otherwise), shall not of itself constitute either company a permanent establishment of the other.

(7) An insurance enterprise of a Contracting State shall be deemed to have a permanent establishment in the other Contracting State if it collects premiums there or insures risks situated there through an agent established there but not including any such agent as is mentioned in paragraph (5).

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