ARTICLE 5
Permanent Establishment
1. For the purposes of this Convention, 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; 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" shall also include a building site or construction or
installation project, or an installation or drilling rig or ship used for the exploration or to prepare
for the extraction of natural resources, but only if such site or project lasts, or such rig or ship is
used, for more than twelve months.
4. 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 the
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 1 and 2, where a person - other than an agent
of an independent status to whom paragraph 6 applies - is acting 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 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 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 as such.
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.