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Germany – Republic of Korea · Source editionArticle 23 Avoidance of Double Taxation in the State of Residence

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(1)

1. Tax shall be determined in the case of a resident of the Fed- eral Republic of Germany as follows: (a) Unless foreign tax credit is to be allowed under sub-para- graph (b), there shall be exempted from the assessment basis of the German tax any item of income arising in the Republic of Korea and any item of capital situated within the Republic of Korea which, according to this Agreement, may be taxed in the Republic of Korea. The Federal Republic of Germany, however, retains the right to take into account in the determi- nation of its rate of tax the items of income and capital so exempted. In the case of items of income from dividends the preceding provision shall apply only to such dividends as are paid to a company (not including partnerships) being a resi- dent of the Federal Republic of Germany by a company being a resident of the Republic of Korea at least 25 per cent of the capital of which is owned directly by the German company and which were not deducted when determining the profits of the company distributing these dividends. There shall be exempted from the assessment basis of the taxes on capital any shareholding the dividends of which if paid, would be exempted, according to the foregoing sen- tences. (b) Subject to the provisions of German tax law regarding credit for foreign tax, there shall be allowed as a credit against Ger- man tax on income payable in respect of the following items of income the Korean tax paid under the laws of the Republic of Korea and in accordance with this Agreement: aa) dividends not dealt with in sub-paragraph (a) above; bb) interest; cc) royalties; dd) items of income that may be taxed in the Republic of Korea according to paragraph 2 of Article 13; ee) items of income that may be taxed in the Republic of Korea according to paragraph 3 of Article 15; ff) directors’ fees; gg) items of income of artistes and sportsmen. (c) The provisions of sub-paragraph (b) above shall apply instead of the provisions of sub-paragraph (a) above to items of income as defined in Articles 7 and 10 and to the assets from which such income is derived if the resident of the Fed- eral Republic of Germany does not prove that the gross income of the permanent establishment in the business year in which the profit has been realised or of the company resi- dent in the Republic of Korea in the business year for which the dividends were paid was derived exclusively or almost exclusively from activities within the meaning of section 8 paragraph 1 nos. 1 to 6 of the German Law on External Tax Relations (Aussensteuergesetz) or from participations within the meaning of section 8 paragraph 2 of that Law; the same shall apply to immovable property used by a permanent establishment (paragraph 4 of Article 6) and to profits from the alienation of such immovable property (paragraph 1 of Article 13) and of the movable property forming part of the business property of the permanent establishment (para- graph 3 of Article 13). (d) Where a company being a resident of the Federal Republic of Germany distributes income derived from sources within the Republic of Korea sub-paragraph (a) shall not preclude the compensatory imposition of corporation tax on such distribu- tions in accordance with the provisions of German tax law. (e) Notwithstanding the provisions of sub-paragraph (a) double taxation shall be avoided by allowing a tax credit as laid down in sub-paragraph (b) aa) if in the Contracting States items of income or capital are placed under differing provisions of this Agreement or attributed to different persons (except pursuant to Arti- cle 9) and this conflict cannot be settled by a procedure in accordance with paragraph 3 of Article 25 and if as a result of this difference in placement or attribution the relevant income or capital would remain untaxed or be taxed too lowly; or bb) if after due consultation with the competent authority of the Republic of Korea, the Federal Republic of Germany notifies the Republic of Korea, through the diplomatic channel, of other items of income to which it intends to apply the provisions of sub-paragraph (b). Double taxa- tion is then avoided for the notified income by allowing a tax credit from the first day of the calendar year in which the notification was made. (f) For the purpose of tax credit referred to in aa), bb) and cc) of sub-paragraph (b), the Korean tax shall, irrespective of the amount of tax actually paid, be deemed to have been paid in the amount as high as the amount resulting from the appli- cable tax rates at source mentioned in Articles 10, 11 and 12 of this Agreement as the case may be. This sub-paragraph shall cease to have effect concerning income which arise or accrue after 31 December 2003.

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(2)

2. Subject to the provisions of Korean tax law regarding the allowance as a credit against Korean tax of tax payable in any country other than the Republic of Korea (which shall not affect the general principle hereof): Where a resident of the Republic of Korea derives income which may be taxed in the Federal Republic of Germany under the laws of the Federal Republic of Germany in accordance with the pro- visions of the Agreement, in respect of that income, the amount of German tax payable shall be allowed as a credit against the Korean tax payable imposed on that resident. The amount of credit shall not, however, exceed that part of Korean tax as computed before the credit is given, which is appropriate to that income.

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Source, edition and limits
Source edition
de-republic-of-korea-2002-base | BGBl. 2002 II S. 1630 | signed 2000-03-10 | published 2002-07-16 | Signed: 2000-03-10 | Gazette publication: 2002-07-16
Source form
official-publication PDF with native text layer; reader is a machine transcription
Source scope
original implementing law, bilingual base treaty and accompanying protocol; not a current consolidated text
Retrieved
2026-09-30
Text and language scope
This source supplies German and English versions. The signing clause also identifies Korean as authentic; that third version is NOT present in this reader. Missing here does not mean globally unavailable. Unreviewed coordinate-based machine transcription of this original source edition only. Printed line breaks, hyphens and uncertain token spacing are retained, not silently corrected. Treaty preamble, closing formula, protocol and shared signatures are separate retained assets, not part of the last article. Full supplements: /review/de-republic-of-korea-2002-base/. PDF page links identify pages, not verified paragraph correspondence.
Review status
Pending human wording, completeness, source-authority, currentness, alignment and rendering review. No legal review performed.
Currentness
Original source edition; not a verified current-law consolidation. Unknown as current law. Signed 2000-03-10; consent law 2002-07-10; gazette publication 2002-07-16. Edition ID year is not a signature date. Treaty entry into force: 2002-10-31. Roster general application: 2003-01-01 (not a universal tax-specific rule). Cached official article entry statements (may refer to multiple instruments): 31. Oktober 2002. Evidence is the retained 2026-10-01 agent audit of source PDF, 2026-01-01 roster and cached official HTML, not a fresh current-law determination. Bounded agent triage, no qualified wording/alignment/legal review. No exhaustive verification of all later 2026 developments. Matching digest proves retained source identity, not legal force.
Protocols and later instruments
Printed signature protocol retained separately and not merged into articles. Roster future-instrument/negotiation entry (NOT proof of operative amendment): Korea, Republik R-P P: 18.04.2018 KR KR. P = Paraphierung (initialled), NOT signature; U = signed, ratification pending; V = negotiation. R-P protocol/R-A replacement. MLI application and complete later amendments, replacements or suspensions are NOT verified. No developments after the retained roster snapshot are certified. This is NOT a current consolidated instrument. Source-triage warnings: Bounded agent triage, no qualified wording/alignment/legal review. No exhaustive verification of all later 2026 developments. Matching digest proves retained source identity, not legal force.
Text language and status
en · authentic-language-transcription · machine-transcription
Citation
BGBl. 2002 II S. 1630
SHA-256
19f6479f55148cfad9a36af88630425d9315c80acdcddf12ea9ea89ab2fae385

Citation

Copyable citation

BGBl. 2002 II S. 1630 | de-republic-of-korea-2002-base | de-republic-of-korea-2002-base | BGBl. 2002 II S. 1630 | signed 2000-03-10 | published 2002-07-16 | Signed: 2000-03-10 | Gazette publication: 2002-07-16 | Article 23 | en | Pending human wording, completeness, source-authority, currentness, alignment and rendering review. No legal review performed. | /library/treaties/de-republic-of-korea-2002-base/en/articles/article-23/

Disclaimers

Language switching retains matching article and paragraph identifiers. The mapping does not confirm reviewed legal or translational equivalence.

BGBl. 2002 II S. 1630

Unreviewed machine transcription. Not a verified current-law consolidation or legal advice. Later changes may be missing.

Source details · Preamble and protocol

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