United Kingdom / Singapore · Article 5 · United Kingdom–Singapore 1997 Agreement: official MLI synthesis

- (1) For the purposes of this Agreement, the term ‘permanent establishment’ means a fixed place of business through which the business of an enterprise is 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

- (f) a mine, an oil or gas well, a quarry or any other place of extraction of natural resources

- (3) A building site or construction, assembly or installation project constitutes a permanent establishment only if it lasts more than six months.

- (4) An enterprise of a Contracting State shall be deemed to have a permanent establishment in the other Contracting State if:

- (a) it carries on supervisory activities in that other Contracting State for more than six months in connection with a building site or construction, assembly or installation project which is being undertaken in that other Contracting State

- (b) it furnishes services, including consultancy services, through employees or other personnel engaged by the enterprise for such purpose, but only where activities of that nature continue (for the same or a connected project) within the other Contracting State for a period or periods aggregating more than 183 days in the fiscal year concerned;

- provided that the provisions of subparagraph (b) shall cease to have effect for any fiscal year beginning after five years from the date on which the Second Protocol first had effect.

- (5) Notwithstanding the preceding provisions 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 place 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) of this paragraph, provided that the overall activity of the fixed place of business resulting from this combination is of a preparatory or auxiliary character

- (6) Notwithstanding the provisions of paragraphs (1) and (2) of this Article, where a person (other than an agent of an independent status to whom paragraph (7) of this Article applies) is acting on behalf of an enterprise and has, and habitually exercises, in a Contracting State an authority to conclude contracts on behalf 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 person are limited to those mentioned in paragraph (5) of this Article 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.

- (7) An enterprise shall not be deemed to have a permanent establishment in a Contracting State merely because it carries on business in that 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.

- (8) 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.

Source & edition

HMRC, Synthesised text of the Multilateral Instrument and the 1997 UK-Singapore Double Taxation Agreement

Official online text · retained capture Official source website ↗

SHA-256 c1bba8057470dbfe9d73303464dc36f7d22c246c4216f2285a8f35d69d72b201

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Edition

Official MLI synthesis of 1997 Agreement as amended by 2009 and 2012 Protocols; HMRC updated 20 May 2019

Text available here

English

Review

Unreviewed; qualified human review pending

Current applicability

Not verified

Signature

1997-02-12

Languages recorded in source metadata: English. This is not a promise of available text or a translation.

Edition notes and known limitations

Official HTML text capture, not Original PDF; human wording and current-law certification not claimed.

Block IDs are navigation aids, never invented legal paragraph numbers. Native extraction can flatten ordered-list styling; only printed source labels are retained.

Complete preamble, closing and all supplied integral protocol/notes are retained separately and searchable within this source.

Source spelling and apparent date typo “Singapore 2th February 1997” in first note retained verbatim; no editorial repair.

Publisher synthesis, not an authentic treaty instrument. MLI replacement text and explanations are retained; original boxes/layout are not reproduced. Authentic Convention and MLI texts take precedence.

Source authority, text completeness and currentness still require human review.