Article 5 - Permanent establishment - Belgium

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 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 or a warehouse; (f) a mine, an oil or gas well, a quarry or any other place of extraction of natural resources; (g) an installation or structure, used for the exploration or exploitation of natural resources; (h) the provision of services or facilities in connection with or supply of plant and machinery on hire used or to be used in, the prospecting for, or extraction or production of mineral oils; (i) a premises used as a sales outlet or for receiving or soliciting orders; (j) a building site or construction, installation or assembly project or supervisory activities in connection therewith, where such site, project or activities (together with other such sites, projects or activities, if any) continue for a period of more than six months, or where such project or supervisory activity, being incidental to the sale of machinery or equipment, continues for a period not exceeding six months and the charges payable for the project or supervisory activity exceed 10 per cent of the sale price of the machinery and equipment. 3. The term permanent establishment shall not be deemed to include : (a) the use of facilities solely for the purpose of storage or display 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 or display; (c) the maintenance of a fixed place of business solely for the purpose of purchasing goods or merchandise, or for collecting information, for the enterprise; (d) the maintenance of a fixed place of business solely for scientific research, for the enterprise. 4. Subject to the provisions of paragraph 5, a person acting in a Contracting State on behalf of an enterprise of the other Contracting State shall be deemed to have a permanent establishment of that enterprise in the first-mentioned State, if : (a) he has and habitually exercises, in that State an authority to conclude contracts on behalf of the enterprise, unless his activities are limited to the purchase of goods or merchandise for that enterprise; or (b) he habitually maintains in the first-mentioned Contracting State a stock of goods or merchandise belonging to the enterprise from which the person regularly delivers goods or merchandise on behalf of the enterprise; or (c) he habitually secures orders in the first-mentioned Contracting State, exclusively or almost exclusively, 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 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 itself or on behalf of that enterprise and other enterprises controlling, controlled by, or subject to the same common control, as that enterprise, he will not be considered an agent of an independent status within the meaning of this paragraph. 6. 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 the other Contracting State (whether through a permanent establishment or otherwise) shall not of itself constitute either company a permanent establishment of the other.