AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE PEOPLE's REPUBLIC OF CHINA AND THE GRAND DUCHY OF LUXEMBOURG FOR THE AVOIDANCE OF DOUBLE TAXATION AND THE PREVENTION OF FISCAL EVASION WITH RESPECT TO TAXES ON INCOME AND ON CAPI
颁布时间:1994-03-12
The government of the People's Republic of China and the Government of
the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg.
Desiring to conclude an Agreement for the avoidance of double taxation
and the prevention of fiscal evasion with respect to taxes on income and
on capital
Have agreed as follows:
Article l Personal Scope
This Agreement shall apply to persons who are residents of one or both
of the Contracting States.
Article 2 Taxes Covered
1.This Agreement shall apply to taxes on income imposed on capital
imposed on behalf of a Contracting State or of its local authorities,
irrespective of the manner in which they are levied.
2. There shall be regarded as taxes on income all taxes imposed on
total income on total income, on total capital, or on elements of income
or of capital, including taxes on gains from the alienation of movable or
immovable property, as well as taxes on capital appreciation.
3.The existing taxes to which the Agreement shall apply are :
(a) in the People's Republic of China:
(i) the individual income tax;
(ii) the income tax for enterprises with foreign investment and
foreign enterprises;
(iii) the local income tax;
(hereinafter referred to as "Chinese tax");
(b) in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg:
(i) the income tax on individuals (I'impot sur le revenu des personnes
physiques);
(ii) the corporation tax ((I'impot sur le revenu des collectivites);
(iii) the tax on fees of directors of companies ((I'impot special sur
les tantiemes);
(iv) the capital tax (I'impot sur la fortune);
(v) the communal trade tax (I'impot commercial communal); (hereinafter
referred to as "Luxembourg tax").
4. This Agreement shall also apply to any identical or substantially
similar taxes which are imposed after the date of signature of this
Agreement in addition to, or in place of , the existing taxes The
competent authorities of the Contraction States shall notify each other of
any substantial changes which have been made in their respective taxation
laws.
Article 3 General Definitions.
1. For the purposes of this Agreement, unless the context otherwise
requires:
(a) the term "China" means the People's Republic of China; when used
in a geographical sense, means all the territory of the People's Republic
of China, including its territorial sea, in which the Chinese laws
relating to taxation apply , and any area beyond its territorial sea,
within which the People's Republic of China has sovereign rights of
exploration for and exploitation of resources of the sea-bed and its
sub-soil and superjacent water resources in accordance with international
law;
(b)the term "Luxembourg", means the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg; when
used in a geographical sense, means the territory of the Grand Duchy of
Luxembourg;
(c)the terms "a Contraction State" and "the other Contraction State"
mean China or Luxembourg as the context requires;
(d) the term "tax "means Chinese tax or Luxembourg tax ,as the context
requires;
(e)the term "person" includes an individual ,a company and any other
body of persons;
(f)the term "company" means any body corporate or any entity which is
treated as a body corporate for tax purposes;
(g) the term "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;
(h)the term "nationals" means all individuals possessing the
nationality of a Contracting State and all juridical persons created or
organized under the laws of that Contracting State, as well as
organizations without juridical personality treated for tax purposes as
juridical persons created or organized under the laws of that Contracting
State;
(i)The term "international traffic" means any transport by a ship or
aircraft operated by a resident of a Contracting State, except when the
ship or aircraft is operated solely between places in the other
Contracting State;
(j)the term "competent authority" means: in the case of china, the
State Tax Bureau or its authorized representative; and in the case of
Luxembourg, the Minister of Finance or his authorized representative.
2. As regards the application this Agreement by a Contracting State,
any term not defined therein shall, unless the context otherwise requires,
have the meaning which it has under the laws of that Contracting State
concerning the taxes to which this Agreement applies.
Article 4 Resident
1. For the purposes of this Agreement , the term "resident of a
Contracting State" means any person who, under the laws of that
Contracting State, is liable to tax therein by reason of his domicile,
residence, place of head office (place effective management) or any other
criterion of a similar nature.
2. Where by reason of the provisions of paragraph 1, an individual is
a resident of both Contracting States, then his status shall be determined
as follows:
(a) He shall be deemed to be a resident solely of the Contracting
State in which he has a permanent home available to him ; if he has a
permanent home available to him in both Contracting States, he shall be
deemed to be a resident of the Contracting State with which his personal
and economic relations are closer (centre of vital interests);
(b) If the State in which he has his centre of vital interests cannot
be determined , or if he has not a permanent home available to him in
either Contracting State, he shall be deemed to be a resident of the
Contracting the State in which he has a habitual abode;
(c) If he has a habitual abode in both Contracting State or in
neither of them, he shall be deemed to be a resident of the Contracting
State of which he is a national;
(d) If he is a national of both Contracting State or of neither of
them, the competent authorities of the Contracting State shall settle the
question by mutual agreement.
3. Where by reason of the provisions of paragraph 1, a person other
than an individual is a resident of both Contracting State, then it shall
be deemed to be a resident of the Contracting State in which its place of
head office(place of effective management) is situated.
Article 5 Permanent Establishment
1. For the purposes of this Agreement, the term "permanent
establishment" means a fixed place of business through which the business
of an enterprise in wholly or partly carried on.
2. The term "permanent establishment" includes especially:
(a) a place of management;
(b ) a branch;
(c) an office;
(d) a factory;
(e) a workshop; and
(f) a mine, an oil or gas well, a quarry or any other place of
extraction of natural resources.
3.The term "permanent establishment "likewise encompasses:
(a)a building site, a construction, assembly or installation project
or supervisory activities in connection therewith, but only where such
site, project or activities continue for a period of more than 6 months;
(b) the furnishing of services, including consultancy services, by an
enterprise of a contracting State through employees or other personnel
engaged in the other contracting State, provided that such activities
continue for the same project or a connected project for a period or
periods aggregating more than 6 months within any 12 month period.
4. Notwithstanding the provisions of paragraphs of this Article ,the
term "permanent establishment" shall be deemed not 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 palace of business solely for the
purpose of purchasing goods or merchandise or of collecting information,
for the enterprise;
(e) the maintenance of a fixed place of business solely for the
purpose of carrying on, for the enterprise, any other activity of a
preparatory or auxiliary character;
(f) the maintenance of a fixed place of business solely for any
combination of activities mentioned in subparagraphs (a) to (e), 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 1and 2, where a
person-other than an agent of an independent status to whom the provisions
of paragraph 6 apply-is acting in a Contracting State on behalf of an
enterprise of the other Contracting State, has and habitually exercises an
authority to conclude contracts in the name of the enterprise, that
enterprise shall be deemed to have a permanent establishment in the
first-mentioned contracting State in respect of any activities which that
person undertakes for the enterprise, unless the activities of such 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 Contracting State through a broker,
general commission agent or any other agent of an independent status,
provided that such persons are acting in the ordinary course of their
business. However, when the activities of such an agent are devoted wholly
or almost wholly on behalf of that enterprise, he will not be considered
an agent of an independent status within the meaning of this paragraph.
7.The fact that a company which is a resident of a Contracting State
controls or is controlled by a company which is 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.
Article 6 Income from Immovable Property
1.Income derived by a resident of a Contracting State from immovable
property (including income from agriculture or forestry) situated in the
other Contracting State may be taxed in that other Contracting State.
2.The term "immovable property" shall have the meaning which it has
under the law of the Contracting State in which the property in question
is situated. The term shall in any case include property accessory to
immovable property, livestock and equipment used in agriculture and
forestry, rights to which the provisions of general law respecting landed
property apply, usufruct of immovable property and rights to variable or
fixed payments as consideration for the working of, or the right to work
mineral deposits, sources and other natural resources. Ships and aircraft
shall not be regarded as immovable property.
3. The provisions of paragraph 1 shall apply to income derived from
the direct use, letting, or use in any other form of immovable property.
4. The provisions of paragraphs 1 and 3 shall also apply to the income
from immovable property of an enterprise and to income from immovable
property used for the performance of independent personal services.
Article 7 Business Profits
1.The profits of an enterprise of a Contracting State shall be taxable
only in that Contracting State unless the enterprise carries on business
in the other Contracting State through a permanent establishment situated
therein . If the enterprise carries on business as aforesaid, the profits
of the enterprise may be taxed in the other Contracting State but only so
much of them as is attributable to that permanent establishment.
2. Subject to the provisions of paragraph3, where an enterprise of a
Contracting State carries on business in the other Contracting State
through a permanent establishment situated therein, there shall in each
Contracting State be attributed to that permanent establishment the
profits which it might be expected to make if it were a distinct and
separate enterprise engaged in the same or similar activities under the
same or similar conditions and dealing wholly independently with the
enterprise of which it is a permanent establishment.
3.In determining the profits of a permanent establishment, there shall
be allowed as deductions expenses which are incurred for the purposes of
the business of the permanent establishment, including executive and
general administrative expenses so incurred, whether in the Contracting
State in which the permanent establishment is situated or elsewhere.
4.Insofar as it has been customary in a Contracting State to determine
the profits to be attributed to a permanent establishment on the basis of
an apportionment of the total profits of the enterprise to its various
parts, nothing in paragraph 2 shall preclude that Contracting State from
determining the profits to be taxed by such an apportionment as may be
customary. The method of apportinment adopted shall, however , be such
that the result shall be in accordance with the principles contained in
this Article.
5. No profits shall be attributed to a permanent establishment by
reason of the mere purchase by that permanent establishment of goods or
merchandise for the enterprise.
6.For the purposes of the preceding paragraphs , the profits to be
attributed to the permanent establishment shall be determined by the same
method year by year unless there is good and sufficient reason to the
contrary.
7.Where profits include items of income which are dealt with
separately in other Articles of this Agreement, then the provisions of
those Articles shall not be affected by the provisions of this Article.
Article 8 Shipping and Air Transport
1. Profits from the operation of ships or aircraft in international
traffic carried on by a resident of a Contracting State be taxable only
in that Contracting State.
2. The provisions of paragraph 1 shall also apply to profits derived
from the participation in a pool, a joint business or an international
operating agency.
Article 9 Associated Enterprises
1. Where
(a) an enterprise of a Contracting State participates directly or
indirectly in the management, control or capital of an enterprise of the
other Contracting State, or
(b) the same persons participate directly or indirectly in the
management, control or capital of an enterprise of a Contracting State and
an enterprise of the other Contracting State,
and in either case conditions are made or imposed between the two
enterprises in their commercial or financial relations which differ from
those which would be made between independent enterprises, then any
profits which would ,but for those conditions, have accrued to one of the
enterprises, but , by reason of those conditions, have not so accrued, may
be included in the profits of that enterprise and taxed accordingly.
2. Where a Contracting State includes in the profits of an enterprise
of that Contracting State and taxes accordingly, profits on which an
enterprise of the other Contracting State has been charged to tax in that
other Contracting State, and the profits so included are profits which
would have accrued to the enterprise of the first-mentioned Contracting
State if the conditions made between the two enterprises had been those
which would have been made between independent enterprises, then that
other Contracting State shall make an appropriate adjustment to the amount
of tax charged therein on those profits. In determining such adjustment,
due regard shall be bad to the other provisions of this Agreement and the
competent authorities of the Contracting State shall ,if necessary,
consult each other.
Article 10 Dividends
1. Dividends paid by a company which is a resident of a Contracting
State to a resident of the other Contracting State may be taxed in that
other Contracting State.
2. However, such dividends may also be taxed in the Contracting State
of which the company paying the dividends is a resident and according to
the laws of that Contracting State, but if the recipient is the beneficial
owner of the dividends the tax so charged shall not exceed:
(a) 5 per cent of the gross amount of the dividends if the beneficial
owner is a company (other than a partnership) which holds directly at
least 25 per cent of the capital of the company paying the dividends;
(b)10 per cent of the gross amount of the dividends in all other
cases.
This paragraph shall not affect the taxation of the company in respect
of the profits out of which the dividends are paid.
3. 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 which is subjected to the
same taxation treatment as income from shares by the laws of the
Contracting State of which the company making the distribution is a
resident. Profits distributed by an enterprise liable in China to the
income tax for enterprises with foreign investment to a resident of
Luxembourg are deemed to be dividends.
4. The provisions of paragraphs 1 and 2 shall not apply if the
beneficial owner of the dividends, being a resident of a Contracting
State, carries on business in the other Contracting State of which the
company paying the dividends is a resident, through a permanent
establishment situated therein, or performs in that other Contracting
State independent personal services from a fixed base situated therein,
and the holding in respect of which the dividends are paid is effectively
connected with such permanent establishment or fixed base.In such case
the provisions of Article 7 or Article 14, as the case may be, shall
apply.
5. Where a company which is a resident of a Contracting State derives
profits or income from the other Contracting State, that other Contracting
State may not impose any tax on the dividends paid by the company, except
insofar as such dividends are paid to a resident of that other Contracting
State or insofar as the holding in respect of which the dividends are paid
is effectively connected with a permanent establishment or fixed base
situated in that other Contracting State, nor subject the company's
undistributed profits to a tax on the company's undistributed profits,
even if the dividends paid or the undistributed profits consist wholly or
partly of profits or income arising in such other Contracting State.
Article 11 Interest
1. Interest arising in a Contracting State and paid to a resident of
the other Contracting State may be taxed in that other Contracting State.
2. However, such interest may also be taxed in the Contracting State
in which it arises and according to the laws of that Contracting State,
but if the recipient is the beneficial owner of the interest the tax so
charged shall not exceed 10 per cent of the gross amount of the interest.
3. Notwithstanding the provisions of paragraph2, interest arising in a
Contracting State and derived by the Government of the other Contracting
State , a local authority thereof or by any resident of that other
Contracting State with respect to debt-claims guaranteed, insured or
indirectly financed by the Government of that other Contracting State, a
local authority thereof, shall be exempt from tax in the first-mentioned
Contracting State.
The term "Government" in this paragraph includes:
(a) in the case of China ,the state banks;
in the case of Luxembourg, the National Credit and Investment
Corporation ( la Societe Nationale de Credit et-d Investissement).
4. The term "interest "as used in this Article means income from
debt-claims of every kind, whether or not secured by mortgage and whether
or not carrying a right to participate in the debtor's profits, and in
particular, income from government securities and income from bonds or
debentures, including premiums and prizes attaching to such securities,
bonds or debentures.
Penalty charges for late payment shall not be regarded as interest for
the purpose of this Article.
5. The provisions of paragraphs 1, 2 and 3 shall not apply if the
beneficial owner of the interest, being a resident of a Contracting State,
carries on business in the other Contracting State in which the interest
arises, through a permanent establishment situated therein, or performs in
that other Contracting State independent personal services from a fixed
base situated therein, and the debt-claim in respect of which the interest
is paid is effectively connected with such permanent establishment or
fixed base. In such case the provisions of Article 7 or 14, as the case
may be, shall apply.
6. Interest shall be deemed to arise in a Contracting State when the
payer is the Government of that Contracting State , a local authority
thereof or a resident of that Contracting State. Where, however, the
person paying the interest, whether he is a resident of a Contracting
State or not , has in a Contracting State a permanent establishment or a
fixed base in connection which the indebtedness on which the interest is
paid was incurred, and such interest is borne by such permanent
establishment or fixed base, then such interest shall be deemed to arise
in the Contracting State in which the permanent establishment or fixed
base is situated.
7. Where, by reason of a special relationship between the payer and
the beneficial owner or between both of them and some other person, the
amount of the interest, having regard to the debt-claim for which it is
paid, exceeds the amount which would have been agreed upon by the payer
and the beneficial owner in the absence of such relationship, the
provisions of this Article shall apply only to the last-mentioned amount,.
In such case, the excess part of the payments shall remain taxable
according to the laws of each Contracting State, due regard being bad to
the other provisions of this Agreement.
Article 12 Royalties
1. Royalties arising in a Contracting State and paid to a resident of
the other Contracting State may be taxed in that other Contracting State.
2. However, such royalties may also be taxed in the Contracting State
in which they arise, and according to the laws of that Contracting State,
but if the recipient is the beneficial owner of the royalties, the tax so
charged shall not exceed:
(a) in the case of royalties referred to in sub-paragraph a)of
paragraph 3 of this Article, 10 per cent of the gross amount of the
royalties; and .
(b) in the case of royalties referred to in sub-paragraph (b) of
paragraph 3 of this Article, 10 per cent of the adjusted amount of the
royalties. For the purpose of this subparagraph "the adjusted amount"
means 60 per cent of the gross amount of the royalties.
3. The term "royalties" as used in this Article means
(a) payments of any kind received as a consideration for the use of,
or the right to use, any copyright of literary, artistic or scientific
work including cinematograph films and films or tapes for radio or
television broadcasting, any patent, know-how, trade mark, design or
model, plan, secret formula. or process, or for industrial, commercial
industrial, commercial or scientific experience ;and .
(b) payments of any kind received as a consideration for the use of,
or the right to use industrial, commercial or scientific equipment.
4. The provisions of paragraphs 1 and 2 shall not apply if the
beneficial owner of the royalties, being a resident of a Contracting State
, carries on business in the other Contracting State in which the
royalties arise, through a permanent establishment situated therein, or
performs in that other Contracting State independent personal services
from a fixed base situated therein, and the right or property in respect
of which the royalties are paid is effectively connected with such
permanent establishment or fixed base. In such case the provisions of
Article 7 or Article 14, as the case may be, shall apply.
5. Royalties shall be deemed to arise in a Contracting State when the
payer is the Government of that Contracting State, a local authority
thereof or a resident of that Contracting State. Where , however ,the
person paying the royalties, whether he is a resident of a Contracting
State or not, has in a Contracting State a permanent establishment of a
fixed base in connection with which the liability to pay the royalties was
incurred, and such royalties are borne by such permanent establishment or
fixed base, then such royalties shall be deemed to arise in the
Contracting State in which the permanent establishment or fixed base is
situated.
6.Where , by reason of a special relationship between the payer and
the beneficial owner or between both of them and some other person, the
amount of the royalties, having regard to the use, right or information
for which they are paid, exceeds the amount which would have been agreed
upon by the payer and the beneficial owner in the absence of such
relationship, the provisions of this Article shall apply only to the
last-mentioned amount. In such case, the excess part of the payments shall
remain taxable according to the laws of each Contracting State, due regard
being had to the other provisions of this Agreement.