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ARTICLE 3
General Definitions
(1) For the purposes of this Agreement, unless the context otherwise requires:
- (a) the term "Israel" means the State of Israel and when used in a geographical sense includes its territorial sea, as well as those maritime areas adjacent to the outer limit of the territorial sea, including seabed and subsoil thereof over which the State of Israel, in accordance with international law and the laws of the State of Israel, exercises its sovereign rights or jurisdiction;
- (b) the term "Germany" means the Federal Republic of Germany and when used in a geographical sense, includes the territory of the Federal Republic of Germany, as well as the area of the seabed, its subsoil and the superjacent water column adjacent to the territorial sea, wherein the Federal Republic of Germany exercises sovereign rights or 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;
- (c) the terms "a Contracting State" and "the other Contracting State" mean Germany or Israel as the context requires;
- (d) the term "person" includes an individual, a company, a trust 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 or 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" means:
- (aa) in respect of Germany:
- (i) 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 the Federal Republic of Germany;
- (bb) in respect of Israel:
- (i) any individual possessing the nationality of Israel and any legal person, partnership and association deriving its status as such from the laws in force in Israel;
- (aa) in respect of Germany:
- (k) the term "competent authority" means:
- (aa) in the case of Germany the Federal Ministry of Finance or the agency to which it has delegated its powers;
- (bb) in the case of Israel the Minister of Finance or his authorised representative.
(2) As regards the application of the 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.