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ARTICLE 3
General Definitions
(1) For the purposes of this Agreement, unless the context otherwise requires:
- (a) the terms "a Contracting State" and "the other Contracting State" mean Ireland or the Federal Republic of Germany, as the context requires;
- (b) the term "Ireland" includes any area outside the territorial waters of Ireland which has been or may hereafter be designated, under the laws of Ireland concerning the Exclusive Economic Zone and the Continental Shelf, as an area within which Ireland may exercise such sovereign rights and jurisdiction as are in conformity with international law;
- (c) the term "Germany" means the Federal Republic of Germany and, when used in a geographical sense, means the territory of the Federal Republic of Germany as well as the area of the sea-bed, its subsoil and the superjacent water column adjacent to the territorial sea, wherein the Federal Republic of Germany exercises sovereign rights and jurisdiction in conformity with international law and its national legislation for the purpose of exploring, exploiting, conserving and managing the living and non-living natural resources or for the production of energy from renewable sources;
- (d) the term "person" includes an individual, a company and any other body of persons;
- (e) the term "company" means any body corporate or any entity that is treated as a body corporate for tax purposes;
- (f) the term "enterprise" applies to the carrying on of any business;
- (g) the term "business" includes the performance of professional services and of other activities of an independent character;
- (h) the terms "enterprise of a Contracting State" and "enterprise of the other Contracting State" mean respectively an enterprise carried on by a resident of a Contracting State and an enterprise carried on by a resident of the other Contracting State;
- (i) the term "international traffic" means any transport by a ship or aircraft operated by an enterprise that has its place of effective management in a Contracting State, except when the ship or aircraft is operated solely between places in the other Contracting State;
- (j) the term "national", in relation to a Contracting State, means:
- (i) in the case of Ireland: any individual possessing citizenship of Ireland; and any legal person, partnership, or association deriving its status as such from the laws in force in Ireland;
- (ii) in the case of Germany: any German within the meaning of the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany and any legal person, partnership and association deriving its status as such from the laws in force in Germany;
- (k) the term "competent authority" means:
- (i) in the case of Ireland, the Revenue Commissioners or their authorised representative;
- (ii) in the case of Germany the Federal Ministry of Finance or the agency to which it has delegated its powers.
(2) As regards the application of this Agreement at any time by a Contracting State, any term not defined therein shall, unless the context otherwise requires, have the meaning that it has at that time under the law of that State for the purposes of the taxes to which the Agreement applies, any meaning under the applicable tax laws of that State prevailing over a meaning given to the term under other laws of that State.