ARTICLE 5
Permanent Establishment
(1) For the purposes of this Agreement, the term "permanent establishment" means a fixed place of business through which an enterprise of a Contracting State wholly or partly carries on the business in the other Contracting State.
(2) The term "permanent establishment" includes especially:
- (a) a place of management;
- (b) a branch;
- (c) an office;
- (d) a factory;
- (e) a workshop;
- (f) a sales outlet;
- (g) a mine, an oil or gas well, a quarry or any other place of exploration, exploitation and/or extraction of natural resources.
(3) A building site, a construction, assembly or installation project or supervisory activities in connection therewith, constitutes a "permanent establishment" but only where such site, project or activities continue for a period of more than 12 months.
(4) Notwithstanding the preceding provisions of this Article, the following activities of an enterprise of a Contracting State in the other Contracting State shall be deemed not to be treated as carrying on through the permanent establishment:
- (a) the use of facilities solely for the purpose of storage or display 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 or display;
- (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 sale of goods or merchandise belonging to the enterprise displayed in the frame of an occasional temporary fair or exhibition after the closing of the said fair or exhibition;
- (e) the maintenance of a fixed place of business solely for the purpose of purchasing goods or merchandise, or of collecting information, for the enterprise;
- (f) the maintenance of a fixed place of business solely for the purpose of advertising, and/or scientific research, for that enterprise and/or carrying on any other activity of a preparatory or auxiliary character;
- (g) the maintenance of a fixed place of business solely for any combination of activities mentioned in sub-paragraphs (a) to (f) provided that the overall activity of the fixed place of business resulting from this combination is of a preparatory or auxiliary character.
(5) Notwithstanding the provisions of paragraphs (1) and (2) where a person (other than an agent of independent status to whom paragraph (6) applies) is acting in a Contracting State on behalf of an enterprise and has and habitually exercises in a Contracting State an authority to conclude contracts in the name of the enterprise, that enterprise shall be deemed to have a permanent establishment in that State in respect of any activities which that person undertakes for the enterprise unless the activities of such a person are limited to those mentioned in paragraph (4) which, if exercised through a fixed place of business would not make this fixed place of business a permanent establishment under the provisions of that paragraph.
(6) 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.
(7) 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.