AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE KINGDOM OF THAILAND AND THE KINGDOM OF BELGIUM FOR THE AVOIDANCE OF DOUBLE TAXATION AND THE PREVENTION OF FISCAL EVASION WITH RESPECT TO TAXES ON INCOME AND ON CAPITAL The Government of the Kingdom of Thailand and the Government of the Kingdom of Belgium 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: CHAPTER I SCOPE OF THE AGREEMENT ARTICLE 1 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 and on capital imposed on behalf of each Contracting State or of its political subdivisions or local authorities, irrespective of the manner in which they are levied. 2. There shall be regarded as taxes on income and on capital all taxes imposed on total income, on total capital, or on elements of income or of capital, including taxes on gains from the or salaries paid by enterprises, as well as taxes on capital appreciation. 3. The existing taxes to which the Agreement shall apply are, in particular:alienation of movable or immovable property, taxes on the total amounts of wages (a) in Belgium: (1) the individual income tax; (2) the corporate income tax; (3) the income tax on legal entities; (4) the income tax on non-resident; including the prepayments, the surcharges on these taxes and prepayments, and the communal, supplement to the individual income tax, (hereinafter referred to as Belgian tax); (b) in Thailand: (1) the income tax; (2) the local development tax; (3) the petroleum income tax; (hereinafter referred to as Thai tax). 4. The Agreement shall also apply to any taxes on income and on capital as are mentioned in paragraph 2 which are imposed in either Contracting State after the date of signature of this Agreement in addition to, or in place of, the existing taxes. The competent authorities of the Contracting States shall notify to each other any significant changes which have been made in their respective taxation laws. CHAPTER II DEFINITIONS ARTICLE 3 General Definitions 1. In this Agreement, unless the context otherwise requires: (a) the term Belgium means the Kingdom of Belgium and, when used in a geographical sense, it includes any area outside the Belgian national sovereignty which has been or may hereafter be designated, under the Belgian laws concerning the continental shelf and in accordance with international law, as an area within which the rights of Belgium with respect to the seabed and subsoil and their natural resources may be exercised; (b) the term Thailand means the Kingdom of Thailand and any area adjacent to the territorial waters of the Kingdom of Thailand which by Thai legislation, and in accordance with international law, has been or may hereafter be designated as an area within which the rights of the Kingdom of Thailand with respect to the seabed and subsoil and their natural resources may be exercised; (c) the terms a Contracting State and the other Contracting State mean Belgium or Thailand, as the context requires; (d) the term person comprises an individual, a company and any other body of persons; (e) the term company means any body corporate or any entity, and group or body of persons, which is treated as a body corporate for tax purposes in the Contracting State of which it is a resident; (f) 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; (g) the term nationals means: (1) all individuals possessing the nationality of a Contracting State; (2) all legal persons, partnerships and associations deriving their status as such from the law in force in a Contracting State; (h) the term international traffic includes traffic between places in one Contracting State in the course of a voyage which extends over more than one country; (i) the term competent authority means: (1) in the case of Belgium, the Minister of Finance or his authorised representative; (2) in the case of Thailand, the Minister of Finance or his authorised representative. 2. As regards the application of the Agreement by a Contracting State any term not otherwise defined shall, unless the context otherwise requires, have the meaning which it has under the laws of that Contracting State relating to the taxes which are the subject of the Agreement. ARTICLE 4 Fiscal domicile 1. For the purposes of this Agreement, the term resident of a Contracting State means any person whose income or capital, under the law of that State, is subject to tax therein by reason of his domicile, residence, place of management or any other criterion of a similar nature. But this term does not include any person who is liable to tax in that Contracting State in respect only of income from sources therein or capital situated in that State. 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 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 Contracting 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 State in which he has an habitual abode; (c) If he has an habitual abode in both Contracting States 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 States or of neither of them, the competent authorities of the Contracting States shall settle the question by mutual agreement. 3. Where by reason of the provisions of paragraph 1 a company is a resident of both Contracting States, it shall be deemed to be a resident of the Contracting State in which it is incorporated or under the low of which it derives its status as a company, If the company under this criterion still is a resident of both Contracting States, then it shall be deemed to be a resident of the Contracting State in which its 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 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) a branch; (c) an office; (d) a factory; (e) a workshop; (f) a warehouse; (g) a mine, quarry, oil or gas well or other place of extracting of natural resources; (h) a building site or construction of assembly project which exists for more than six 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 a broker, general commission agent or any other agent of an independent status to whom paragraph 5 applies-shall be deemed to be a permanent establishment in the first-mentioned State, but only if (a) he has and habitually exercises in the first-mentioned State, an authority to conclude contracts for or in the name of the enterprise, unless his activities are limited to the purchase of goods or merchandise for the enterprise; or (b) he habitually maintains in the first-mentioned State a stock of goods or merchandise belonging to the enterprise from which he regularly delivers goods or merchandise for or in the name of the enterprise; or (c) he habitually secures orders in the first-mentioned State wholly or almost wholly for the enterprise itself, or for the enterprise and other enterprises which are controlled by it or have a controlling interest in it. 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. This shall not apply if such broker of agent carries on in that other state an activity described in paragraph 4 wholly or almost wholly for the enterprise itself or for the enterprise and other enterprises which are controlled by it or have a controlling interest in it. 6. Notwithstanding the provisions of paragraphs 4 and 5 an insurance enterprise of one of the Contracting States shall be deemed to have a permanent establishment in the other State if it collects premiums in that other State or insures risks situated therein through an agent as is mentioned in paragraph 4 or an agent of an independent status who has and habitually exercises an authority to conclude contracts in the name of the enterprise. 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), swall not of itself constitute either company a permanent establishment of the other. |