{"id":2250,"date":"2015-12-31T12:28:28","date_gmt":"2015-12-31T06:58:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.itatonline.org\/articles_new\/?p=2250"},"modified":"2015-12-31T12:28:28","modified_gmt":"2015-12-31T06:58:28","slug":"permanent-establishment-the-continuing-conundrum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/itatonline.org\/articles_new\/permanent-establishment-the-continuing-conundrum\/","title":{"rendered":"Permanent Establishment: The Continuing Conundrum"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.itatonline.org\/articles_new\/wp-content\/uploads\/DSC_0107.jpg\" alt=\"CA Ashish Karundia\" width=\"72\" height=\"100\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-2255\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>CA Ashish Karundia has conducted a meticulous study into the weaknesses and failures of the traditional concept of a permanent  establishment. He argues, with reference to a multitude of domestic and international judgements, that the PE concept has failed in reaching the objective of legitimate taxation of income that is attributable to an enterprise of the non-resident enterprise  <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\nPermanent Establishment (PE) is a key facet of international  taxation and the same constitutes a crucial threshold for the assignment of  taxing rights in respect of the business income to a jurisdiction where  enterprises operate in more than one country. The concept of permanent  establishment has witnessed a sea change since its introduction and hence, the  need to address the newer issues. The said concept is designed to ensure that  business activities do not get taxed by any state unless significant economic  bonds are created between the enterprise and the state.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>The present write-up is aimed at addressing some of the  weaknesses and failures of the traditional concept of the permanent  establishment in reaching the objective of the legitimate taxation of the  income that is attributable to an enterprise by the non-resident enterprise in  cases where the core business activity of the permanent establishment is  regularly performed in the source state. It analyses recent judicial decisions,  both Indian and international, that exhibit a common feature, viz., the problem  is universal and the world is yet to reach a consensus.<\/p>\n<p><strong>A. Taxation  in digital economy<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The advent of technology has transformed the way the  business is conducted from brick and mortar to digital shops. As a result,  enterprises are nowadays running their business digitally which gives them an  additional benefit of worldwide presence. The exten&shy;sive use of internet also  leads to shrinking of global market place. Tax authorities try to tax such  e-commerce enterprises by determining their permanent establishment status. <\/p>\n<p>In the year 1999, The Organisation for Economic Cooperation  and Development (OECD) constituted a Technical Advisory Group (TAG) to examine  28 categories of e-com&shy;merce taxation transactions and issue a comprehensive  report on the same. The interpretation of the OECD for each of these  transactions, more or less, followed its earlier com&shy;mentary with the objective  of providing more clarity on each of these transactions. India had  also set up a High Powered Committee (HPC) to examine tricky taxation issues  arising from char&shy;acterization of certain licensing payments. The HPC Report  analyzed all categories of payments discussed in the TAG Report. However, it  did not agree with the TAG&rsquo;s recommendations with respect to characterization  of payments made for use of software. The HPC did not address complex issues on  creation of a permanent establishment in a virtual world.<\/p>\n<p>The general definition of permanent establishment in the  first part of Article 5 (1) postulates the existence of a fixed place of  business whereas the second part of Article 5(1) postulates that the business  is carried out in India  through such fixed place.<a href=\"#_ftn1\" name=\"_ftnref1\" title=\"\" id=\"_ftnref1\"> (1)<\/a> Thus, existence of a place of business is the main pre-requisite to constitute  a permanent establishment in the source State. But what would constitute a  place of business was neither defined in OECD Model Tax Convention nor was any  light thrown in this respect in the 1963 commentary. However, some guidance was  given on &ldquo;place of business&rdquo; in the 1977 commentary, to mean a facility such as  premises or, in certain instances, machinery or equipment.<a href=\"#_ftn2\" name=\"_ftnref2\" title=\"\" id=\"_ftnref2\">(2) <\/a><\/p>\n<p>The place of business needs to be tangible in  nature, i.e., having a physical location<a href=\"#_ftn3\" name=\"_ftnref3\" title=\"\" id=\"_ftnref3\">(3) <\/a>,  though the definition of permanent establishment contained in the OECD Model  Tax Convention did not expressly state the requirement of tangible object to  have a place of business.<a href=\"#_ftn4\" name=\"_ftnref4\" title=\"\" id=\"_ftnref4\">(4) <\/a> The said requirement was expressly mentioned for the first time in the 2003  commentary.<a href=\"#_ftn5\" name=\"_ftnref5\" title=\"\" id=\"_ftnref5\">(5) <\/a> The commentary explained that  a distinction needs to be made between a computer equipment which may be set up  at a location so as to constitute a permanent establishment under certain  circumstances, and the data and software which is used by, or stored on, that  equipment.<a href=\"#_ftn6\" name=\"_ftnref6\" title=\"\" id=\"_ftnref6\">(6) <\/a> The commentary gives the following example:<em>&ldquo;An  Internet web site is a combination of software and electronic data does not in  itself constitute tangible property and therefore, does not have a location  that can constitute a &lsquo;place of business&rsquo; as there is no facility such as  premises or, in certain instances, machinery or equipment.<a href=\"#_ftn7\" name=\"_ftnref7\" title=\"\" id=\"_ftnref7\">(7) <\/a> The enterprise does  not have a physical presence at server&rsquo;s location since the web site is not  tangible and thus, the enterprise cannot be considered to have acquired a place  of business by virtue of that hosting arrangement.&rdquo;<\/em><a href=\"#_ftn8\" name=\"_ftnref8\" title=\"\" id=\"_ftnref8\">(8) <\/a><\/p>\n<p>The commentary further states  that the person who operates the server is different from the enterprise  carrying out business through a website hosted on such server.<a href=\"#_ftn9\" name=\"_ftnref9\" title=\"\" id=\"_ftnref9\">(9) <\/a><\/p>\n<p>Let us see jurisprudence  wherein the issue of intangibles is discussed. <\/p>\n<p><strong><em>a. Software<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In the case of <strong><em>Western Union Financial Services<\/em><\/strong><a href=\"#_ftn10\" name=\"_ftnref10\" title=\"\" id=\"_ftnref10\">(10) <\/a>,  the taxpayer was a tax resident of United    States which entered into agency  agreements with persons<a href=\"#_ftn11\" name=\"_ftnref11\" title=\"\" id=\"_ftnref11\">(11) <\/a> in India in  respect of its money transfer business. The taxpayer installed software in the  premises of the agents which gave access to those agents to the mainframe  computers in United States for  matching of the control numbers. The revenue authorities argued that the  taxpayer has a permanent establishment in the form of premises cum software.  The Income Tax Appellate Tribunal, Delhi held  that mere use of the software from the premises of the agents cannot lead to  the decision that the <em>premises-cum-software<\/em> will be the permanent establishment of taxpayer in India.<\/p>\n<p>In a <strong><em>Swedish case<\/em><\/strong><a href=\"#_ftn12\" name=\"_ftnref12\" title=\"\" id=\"_ftnref12\">(12) <\/a>,  X and its parent company Y, were part of a group providing a range of technical  and other solutions. The group proposed establishment of a data center in Sweden. In  the proposed arrangement, X was to acquire a server to be located in leased  premises at certain place in Sweden. The  said server was planned to include certain type of software provided and owned  by Y. Further, neither X nor Y were to have  any employees in Sweden and  all the monitoring was to be performed by personnel in country. In these facts,  the Swedish Supreme Administrative Court held  that a possession of intellectual property [software] does not imply that there  is a place of business in Sweden and  the fact that Y&#8217;s customers can take advantage of the software does not alter  this position.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>b. Website<\/em><\/strong> <\/p>\n<p>In the case of <strong><em>Right Florist<\/em><\/strong><a href=\"#_ftn13\" name=\"_ftnref13\" title=\"\" id=\"_ftnref13\">(13) <\/a>,  the taxpayer availed online advertisement services from Google Ireland Ltd. and  Yahoo US for which payments were made without withholding tax. Google Ireland  Ltd. and Yahoo US were  having presence in India only  in the form of website. The Income Tax Appellate Tribunal, Kolkata held that a  website does not constitute a &lsquo;permanent establishment&rsquo; unless the servers on  which websites are hosted are also located in the same jurisdiction and since  the servers of Google and Yahoo are not located in India, there is no fixed  place permanent establishment in India. The Tribunal held that the  interpretation of the expression &lsquo;permanent establishment&rsquo;, even in the context  of tax treaties, does not, normally extend to websites unless the servers on  which websites are hosted are also located in the same jurisdiction. The  Tribunal explained that the underlying principle is this: <em>while website per se, which is a combination of software and electronic  data, does not constitute a tangible property as it cannot have a location  which constitutes place of business, a web server, on which the web site is  stored and through which it is accessible, is a piece of equipment having a  physical location and such location may thus constitute a &lsquo;fixed place of  business&rsquo; of the enterprise that operates that server. A search engine, which  has only its presence through its website, cannot therefore be a permanent  establishment unless its web servers are also located in the same jurisdiction<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>In the case of <strong><em>Webbase Enterprises Limited<\/em><\/strong><a href=\"#_ftn14\" name=\"_ftnref14\" title=\"\" id=\"_ftnref14\">(14) <\/a>,  a Hong Kong based company was involved in  sale of contact lenses and cosmetics in Sweden  through internet. The taxpayer purchased services of third party i.e. Fortus  International AB, which handles sourcing, personnel resources, storage etc. All  products were purchased from Fortus&rsquo;s storage. Fortus&rsquo;s representative was  granted power of attorney to represent the taxpayer in Sweden. The  taxpayer did not maintain any of its own personnel or storage units in Sweden and it  solely focused on the marketing and development of products, which was done  from Hong Kong. The  taxpayer though registered itself for tax purposes in Sweden  stating that they conducted business in Sweden, a  matter which they later in trial maintained was an error, insisting that the  case should be tried on factual matters instead of an error of registration.  The Gothenburg Court of Appeal noted that; the consumers enter into agreement  with the taxpayer directly through the websites and payment is made straight to  the taxpayer, taxpayer has no personnel in Sweden and is depended on Fortus for  sales as the products they sell are bought from Fortus&rsquo;s storage and Fortus  conducts all delivery and accounting, taxpayer has no physical access to the internet  servers and they do not dispose of the Fortus&rsquo;s space. The Gothenburg Court of  Appeal held that even though the taxpayer&rsquo;s business activity, sales of lenses  and cosmetic through the internet, is made possible through Fortus, taxpayer  has no permanent establishment in Fortus&rsquo;s space.<\/p>\n<p>In a <strong><em>Danish case<\/em><\/strong><a href=\"#_ftn15\" name=\"_ftnref15\" title=\"\" id=\"_ftnref15\">(15) <\/a>,  an <em>international gambling company<\/em> that offered various kinds of online games via internet proposed to apply for  gaming license from Gambling Authority in Denmark  following the liberalization of the Danish gaming market.&nbsp;The Company did  not intend to establish an office in Denmark and instead  planned to run the game itself through a Danish website from a server that is  physically located outside Denmark.&nbsp;The  Danish Tax Board confirmed that the gaming company does not have a permanent  establishment in Denmark and  thus, not subject to limited tax liability. <\/p>\n<p>In a <strong><em>Finnish case<\/em><\/strong><a href=\"#_ftn16\" name=\"_ftnref16\" title=\"\" id=\"_ftnref16\">(16) <\/a>,  a Swedish company was engaged in the <em>electronic  sale and leasing pictures<\/em> primarily to advertising agencies in the Nordic  countries through its website.&nbsp;The pictures could either be downloaded or  delivered to the customer on CD-ROM directly from Sweden.&nbsp;The  payment was made electronically. The company neither had any office\/warehouse  in Finland nor  was the server located in Finland. The  company had two representatives from Finland who  worked from home and were&nbsp;responsible to market the company&#8217;s websites and  maintain business links there.&nbsp;The website of the company was considered  not to create Swedish company&rsquo;s permanent establishment in Finland by  Finnish Central Board of Taxation.<\/p>\n<p>The Polish Ministry of Finance<a href=\"#_ftn17\" name=\"_ftnref17\" title=\"\" id=\"_ftnref17\">(17) <\/a> was seized of a situation wherein a German company was trading in goods with  Polish group companies and the orders were carried out through a website hosted  by a server located in Germany. The  German company was not having any staff or office in Poland. In  this fact situation, the Ministry of Finance held that permanent establishment  is not created because all the activities were carried on through a website  hosted on a server located outside Poland. <\/p>\n<p>Similarly, the Israeli Taxation Authority<a href=\"#_ftn18\" name=\"_ftnref18\" title=\"\" id=\"_ftnref18\">(18) <\/a> denied permanent establishment of a foreign company functioning in Israel  through website (operated by local unrelated individuals). The Taxation  Authority noted as a fact that the server of the website was located outside Israel.<u> <\/u><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>A  different view<\/em><\/strong> was taken by the Spanish Court in the case of <strong>Dell Products, <\/strong><strong>Ireland<\/strong><a href=\"#_ftn19\" name=\"_ftnref19\" title=\"\" id=\"_ftnref19\">(19) <\/a>. In this case, the taxpayer sold  goods in Spain  through a website whose server was located outside Spain though  dedicated to the Spanish market. The Spanish affiliate (Dell Spain)  employed people to translate the website, review the contents and administered  the site. The Spanish Central    Economic-Administrative Court  observed that Dell Products, Ireland had  tax nexus with Spain as the activities performed in Spain were economically significant (i.e., trading, selling and delivering) and thus a  &#8216;virtual permanent establishment&#8217;  exists in Spain  despite the fact that it had no physical contact with Spain.<\/p>\n<p><em>The Courts have thus,  taken a consistent view (except Dell <\/em><em>Product<\/em><em>, <\/em><em>Ireland<\/em><em>) that only tangible objects can qualify as  place of business. Does it mean that entities having economic presence without  any physical presence in the source state will not trigger permanent  establishment?<\/em> A perusal of the history leading to the  emergence of the concept of permanent establishment shows that it has to be  understood in the light of second industrial revolution characterized by  relatively immobile production factors and doctrine of economic allegiance  propounded by the four Economists consisting of Professor Gijsbert Bruins,  Professor Luigi Einaudi, Professor Edwin Seligman and Professor Sir Josiah Stamp.  The intention was thus, to give fair share to each State according to their  contribution.<\/p>\n<p>The existing definition of permanent establishment is  insufficient to meet the technological advances. How to read an active act in  light of technological advances was addressed by <strong><em>Francis Bennion<\/em><\/strong><a href=\"#_ftn20\" name=\"_ftnref20\" title=\"\" id=\"_ftnref20\">(20) <\/a> in his book titled, &lsquo;Statutory Interpretation&rsquo;, where he said that one may  refer to &#8216;doctrine of updating  construction&#8217; while interpreting an &lsquo;ongoing Act&rsquo; (always speaking). The  said doctrine suggests that in construing an &lsquo;ongoing Act&rsquo;, the interpreter is  to presume that Parliament intended the Act to be applied at any future time in  such a way as to give effect to the true original intention and thus, the  interpreter is to make allowances for any relevant changes that have occurred,  since the Act&#8217;s passing, in law, social conditions, technology, the meaning of  words, and other matters.&nbsp;In other words, an enactment of former days is thus, to be read today in light of  dynamic processing received over the years, with such modification of the  current meaning of its language as will now give effect to the original  legislative intention. The said doctrine is applied by Supreme Court of India  in the case of&nbsp;<strong><em>S.J. Choudhary<\/em><\/strong><a href=\"#_ftn21\" name=\"_ftnref21\" title=\"\" id=\"_ftnref21\">(21) <\/a>&nbsp;and<em>&nbsp;<strong>Podar Cement<\/strong><\/em><a href=\"#_ftn22\" name=\"_ftnref22\" title=\"\" id=\"_ftnref22\">(22) <\/a><em>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>The author is of the view that DTAA is, by  its very nature, an &#8216;ongoing Act&#8217; and thus, doctrine of updating construction  can be applied to the &#8216;concept of permanent establishment&#8217;. &nbsp;Accordingly, there is a possibility that  e-commerce companies may create a &#8216;<strong>Permanent Establishment<\/strong>&#8216; in <\/em><em>India<\/em><em>, even  though such companies do not have any physical presence in <\/em><em>India<\/em><em>,<\/em><em> by applying the doctrine of updating  construction. The said interpretation would also help in achieving the  intention of giving adequate share to the State from where the revenue is  actually generated and there would be no need to introduce the Virtual PE  concept or a similar concept in the DTAA. This will also do away with the  difficulties such as amendment of DTAA&rsquo;s by various countries, prospective  applicability of the newly introduced concept, etc., associated with the  introduction of Virtual PE or similar concept.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The United States Supreme Court in the case  of <strong><em>Burger  King Corporation<\/em><\/strong><a href=\"#_ftn23\" name=\"_ftnref23\" title=\"\" id=\"_ftnref23\"> <\/a> observed that it is an inescapable fact of modern commercial life that a  substantial amount of business is transacted solely by mail and wire  communications across state lines&rsquo;, thus obviating the need for physical  presence within a State in which business is conducted. The Madras High Court  in the case of&nbsp;<strong><em>Verizon  Communications<\/em><\/strong><a href=\"#_ftn24\" name=\"_ftnref24\" title=\"\" id=\"_ftnref24\">(24) <\/a>observed  that&nbsp;in a virtual world, the  physical presence of an entity has today become an insignificant one. It  was also observed that technological development brought in by the use of and  role of digital information, goods etc.,&nbsp;and the foreign enterprise does not need physical presence at all in a  country for carrying on business.<\/p>\n<p>The <em>Action 1: Addressing the Tax Challenges of the Digital Economy<\/em> final report issued by OECD on 5th October, 2015 under the G20 Base Erosion and Profit Shifting Project  did not recommend any of the options namely <em>(i) <\/em>a new nexus in the form  of a significant economic presence, <em>(ii) <\/em>a withholding tax on certain  types of digital transactions, and <em>(iii) <\/em>an equalization levy, at this  stage, as it is of the belief that the measures developed in the Base Erosion  and Profit Shifting (BEPS) Project will have a substantial impact on BEPS  issues identified in the digital economy and that such measure will mitigate  some aspects of the broader tax challenges and result in effective levying of  consumption taxes in the market country. The report, however, gave a free hand  to Countries by stating that Countries could, however, introduce any of these  three options in their domestic laws as additional safeguards against BEPS,  provided they respect existing treaty obligations, or in their bilateral tax  treaties. <em>The author does not share the  recommendation of OECD to bring some changes under the domestic laws with a  condition to respect the existing treaty obligation because in event of  conflict between the domestic law and treaty, the treaty generally<a href=\"#_ftn25\" name=\"_ftnref25\" title=\"\" id=\"_ftnref25\">(25) <\/a> prevails and  accordingly, the countries would not be benefitted.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>B. Business  restructuring <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The increased cut throat competition to provide quality  services to clients at a low cost or the urge to maximize profits has forced  Multi-National Companies to set up a subsidiary in low cost jurisdiction and a  major portion of their work is outsourced to such subsidiary. The existence of  a subsidiary company does not, by itself, constitute that subsidiary company a  permanent establishment of its parent company on the principle that, for the  purpose of taxation, a subsidiary company constitutes an independent legal  entity. Further, even the fact that the trade or business carried on by the  subsidiary company is managed by the parent company does not constitute the  subsidiary company a permanent establishment of the parent company.<a href=\"#_ftn26\" name=\"_ftnref26\" title=\"\" id=\"_ftnref26\">(26) <\/a>This  section deliberates on the issues concerning the conversion of full-fledged manufacturers  into contract or toll manufacturers as well as conversion of full-fledged  distributors into commissionaires.<\/p>\n<p>a. Contract manufacturing<\/p>\n<p>In case of <strong><em>Roche Vitamins<\/em><\/strong><a href=\"#_ftn27\" name=\"_ftnref27\" title=\"\" id=\"_ftnref27\">(27) <\/a>,  a Swiss tax resident awarded contract for manufacture and product packing to  its Spanish subsidiary at a remuneration of cost plus 3.3% mark up.  Additionally, it also appointed its Spanish subsidiary as its agent for  promoting the products and interests of the parent. The Supreme Court of Spain  held that the Spanish subsidiary constituted a fixed place of business of Roche  Vitamins and thus, a fixed place permanent establishment is constituted.  Similar views were also expressed by the Spanish Central  Economic-Administrative Court in the case of <strong><em>Dell Products<\/em><\/strong><a href=\"#_ftn28\" name=\"_ftnref28\" title=\"\" id=\"_ftnref28\">(28) <\/a> wherein it agreed with the tax administration that Dell Products had a fixed  place permanent establishment in Spain through its Spanish subsidiary as  essential part of the business functions was carried on using the facilities,  premises and personnel of the Spanish subsidiary and thus, the activity of the  parent company should be considered as being carried on through a fixed place  of business in Spain. The Spanish    Central Economic-Administrative Court  followed the Dell ruling and gave a similar view in case of <strong>Honda<\/strong><a href=\"#_ftn29\" name=\"_ftnref29\" title=\"\" id=\"_ftnref29\">(29) <\/a> as well.<\/p>\n<p>In the case of <strong><em>Borox<\/em><\/strong>, the Spanish subsidiary<a href=\"#_ftn30\" name=\"_ftnref30\" title=\"\" id=\"_ftnref30\">(30) <\/a> signed two separate contracts with its UK  parent; one for warehousing, provision of services<a href=\"#_ftn31\" name=\"_ftnref31\" title=\"\" id=\"_ftnref31\">(31) <\/a> and another one for sales promotion. The tax authorities <em>presumed<\/em> that there was a fixed place of business of the parent at  the premises of the subsidiary and, therefore, there was a permanent  establishment in Spain. The  Spanish National High Court<a href=\"#_ftn32\" name=\"_ftnref32\" title=\"\" id=\"_ftnref32\">(32) <\/a> and Spanish Supreme Court<a href=\"#_ftn33\" name=\"_ftnref33\" title=\"\" id=\"_ftnref33\">(33) <\/a> considered the existence of an &lsquo;established, permanent and complete business  structure&rsquo; as a type of a fixed place of business and concurred with the view  of the lower authorities.<\/p>\n<p>In a German case, a Swiss company entered into a contract  manufacturing agreement with a German company wherein the German company  manufactured flavouring sauces with its own personnel pursuant to the recipes  and upon instructions of the Swiss company. The Swiss company also rented space  from the German company and established production facility there. The said  production facility was rented to the German company. The German Court of First  Instance Baden-Wurttemberg held the contract manufacturing facility in the  rented premise amounted to fixed place of business though denied the existence  of Swiss company&rsquo;s fixed place permanent establishment as it was German company  who was conducting business at such place and not the Swiss company.<a href=\"#_ftn34\" name=\"_ftnref34\" title=\"\" id=\"_ftnref34\">(34) <\/a> In a case with identical facts, the German Court of First Instance  Baden-Wurttemberg<a href=\"#_ftn35\" name=\"_ftnref35\" title=\"\" id=\"_ftnref35\">(35) <\/a> came to the conclusion that the Swiss company maintained a permanent  establishment in Germany. The  facts that the personnel of the German manufacturer followed the instructions  of the Swiss principal and that the German manufacturer was allowed to use the  premises belonging to the Swiss principal for no consideration were cited in  support of the decision.<\/p>\n<p><em>The author is of the  view that outsourcing of manufacturing activities to subsidiary or independent  contract manufacturer would not automatically result in creation of, fixed  place of business of the parent company in the form of premises of the related  entity\/independent contractor or permanent establishment. However, where  practically all the facilities, services, personnel, premises etc. are  available to the parent company, the parent company can be said to have a  permanent establishment. <\/em><\/p>\n<p>  b. Commissionaire arrangements<\/p>\n<p>One of the instances where agent of dependent  status triggers Agency PE is where such agent has the authority to conclude  contract. The conclusion of contract involves a number of activities such as  solicitations, marketing, liaisoning, negotiations, etc. Further, such authority  needs to be exercised in the name of the enterprise. <\/p>\n<p>Under Common law, contract entered between an  agent and a customer is always binding on the principal whether the contract is  concluded in its own name or in the name of principal. In other words, common  law treats the contract apparently made between the agent and the third party  as the one made between the principal and the third party through the medium of  the agent whether or not the principal is disclosed to the third party. In  contrast, under the Civil law, term &lsquo;agency&rsquo; describes the relationship between  a principal and a person which acts on account of that principal i.e. to  conclude contracts binding on him. However, to conclude a contract binding on  the principal, the agent needs to disclose the principal to the third party in  the process of contracting failing which the concluded contract doesn&rsquo;t bind  the principal. The Civil law thus, distinguishes between the direct  representation and indirect representation.<\/p>\n<p>Direct representation is where the agent enters  into the contract with the customer &lsquo;in the name of the principal&rsquo; whereas  indirect representation is where the agent enters into the contract with the  customer &lsquo;in its own name&rsquo; as against &lsquo;in the name of the principal&rsquo;. The  contracts entered into under direct representation are only binding on the  principal and not those entered under indirect representation, which is binding  on the agents.<\/p>\n<p>Civil law thus, distinguishes contracts made in  the name of the principal (direct representation), which bind the principal,  and contracts made in the name of the agent (indirect representation, as),  which do not, whereas no such distinction exist in Common law.<\/p>\n<p>The commissionaire agreement is a leading  example of indirect representation. Commissionaire agreement may be defined as  an arrangement through which a person sells products in a given State in its  own name but on behalf of a foreign enterprise who is the owner of the  products. Accordingly, the &lsquo;commissionaire arrangement&rsquo; as a concept does not  exist in common law countries (e.g. India, UK) but only in civil law countries (e.g. France, Norway etc.). As  the contracts entered under commissionaire arrangements (indirect  representation) are not binding on the principal, some Courts have taken a view  that the same do not gives rise to Agency PE of the principal as the contract  is concluded in the name of the agent and not the enterprise. The same has  resulted in restructuring of business i.e. conversion of distributors into commissionaires.<\/p>\n<p>In <strong><em>Societe Zimmer Limited<\/em><\/strong><a href=\"#_ftn36\" name=\"_ftnref36\" title=\"\" id=\"_ftnref36\">(36) <\/a>,  the case concerned a UK company which was engaged in the  business of selling orthopedic products. Until 1995 the distribution and  marketing of the products in France were conducted by Zimmer SAS, a wholly  owned French subsidiary of Zimmer Limited. In 1995 Zimmer SAS sold its assets  to its parent company, but continued to distribute the parent&rsquo;s products as a  commissionaire of the parent. Under the commissionaire arrangement, Zimmer SAS  could accept orders, make offers, negotiate prices and terms of payment, grant  discounts, and conclude contracts with both new and existing clients without  the prior approval of its UK parent, Zimmer Limited. The Supreme  Administrative Court of France denied the existence of Agency PE as the  commissionaire acts in its own name and thus, couldn&rsquo;t bind its principal. The  Court also held that the position would not alter even if (1) all the cost and  commercial risks in respect of the products sold by the commissionaire is borne  by UK parent, (2) only the products of UK parent was sold, (3) commissionaire  was controlled by the UK parent, and (4) all the terms of contracts between the  commissionaire and the customers were pre-determined by the UK parent.<\/p>\n<p>In <strong><em>Dell Products<\/em><\/strong><a href=\"#_ftn37\" name=\"_ftnref37\" title=\"\" id=\"_ftnref37\">(37) <\/a>,  the case concerned a tax resident of Ireland whose products were sold by Dell AS, Norway under the commissionaire arrangement.  The arrangement showed that relationship between principal and commissionaire  was regulated by Norwegian Commission Act of 1916. Dell AS sold products after entering into  agreements with customers in its own name but the taxpayer was not legally  bound by agreements which Dell AS entered with its customers. In these facts,  the Supreme Court of Norway held that Dell AS could not result in creation of  Agency PE as Dell AS had no legal authority to enter into  contracts with customers in name of the taxpayer and, therefore, Dell AS could not bind the taxpayer legally.<\/p>\n<p>In the Italian case  of <strong><em>Boston    Scientific International BV<\/em><\/strong><strong><em> (<\/em><\/strong><strong><em>BSI BV<\/em><\/strong><strong><em>)<\/em><\/strong><a href=\"#_ftn38\" name=\"_ftnref38\" title=\"\" id=\"_ftnref38\">(38) <\/a>, a company resident in the Netherlands, held 99% of the shares in an Italian  company, Boston Scientific SpA (BS SpA) which acted as its distributor of  medical equipment in Italy. BS SpA sold only products on behalf  of BSI    BV,  and did so, on a commissionaire basis: it contracted with its Italian  customers, but orders were sent to BSI BV and were fulfilled directly by BSI BV from its warehouse. BSI BV acquired the medical products from other  companies in the Boston group. BS SpA was subject to certain restrictions applicable to  members of the Boston group, for example with respect to sponsorship. It also entered into  contracts itself in respect of factorship and insurance. The Supreme Court of  Italy affirmed the decision of the Regional Tax Court of Milan and held that it  was correct in holding that the Dutch company did not have a Agency PE as the  Italian company entered into contracts in its own name and for its own benefit  and not in the name of its Dutch parent.<\/p>\n<p><em>The author is of the view that Agency PE on  account of authority to conclude contract in the name of enterprise will get  created whether or not the principal is disclosed to the customer as the  principal would still be economically bound by the contract signed by the agent  and such interpretation appears more logical. The intention of the drafters was  to get Agency PE triggered where the principal was bound by the acts of the  agent and not in whose name the contract is signed. The literal interpretation  i.e. reading &lsquo;in the name of&rsquo; would mean that Agency PE would never get  triggered under Civil law where the agreements are entered under &lsquo;indirect  representation&rsquo; and such an interpretation would lead to unintended results and  may lead to tax evasion.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The <em>Action  7: Preventing the Artificial Avoidance of Permanent Establishment Status,<\/em> final  report issued by OECD on 5th October, 2015 under the G20 BEPS Project called for a review of  definition of Agency PE and states that under the amended provisions the  permanent establishment status will no longer be circumvented via the use of  commissionaire or similar structures. The proposal made by the OECD will  definitely bring an end to such tax avoidance strategies, however, the <em>author feels that the proposal made will  bring clarity for future and will not address the current situation. Does it mean  that the States should allow Multi-National Companies to continue with their  tax avoidance strategies till the time the proposal made is implemented??<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>*<\/strong>CA Ashish Karundia is a practicing  chartered accountant and is the author of &lsquo;Law &amp; Practice Relating to  Permanent Establishment&rsquo;, a comprehensive commentary on permanent  establishment. He can be reached at <a href=\"mailto:akkarundia.ca@gmail.com\">akkarundia.ca@gmail.com<\/a>. The  author is thankful to Ananya Jain for all the support provided in preparation  of this document.<\/p>\n<div>\n<div id=\"ftn1\">\n      <a href=\"#_ftnref1\" name=\"_ftn1\" title=\"\" id=\"_ftn1\"> <\/a>DIT v. Morgan Stanley &amp; Co. [2007]  162 Taxman 165 (Supreme    Court, India) <\/div>\n<div id=\"ftn2\">\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref2\" name=\"_ftn2\" title=\"\" id=\"_ftn2\"> <\/a>Note 4, Article 5, OECD Commentary (1977)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"ftn3\">\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref3\" name=\"_ftn3\" title=\"\" id=\"_ftn3\"> <\/a> Note 42.1, Article 5, OECD Commentary  (2003)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"ftn4\">\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref4\" name=\"_ftn4\" title=\"\" id=\"_ftn4\"> <\/a>Article 5, OECD Model Tax Convention  (2014)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"ftn5\">\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref5\" name=\"_ftn5\" title=\"\" id=\"_ftn5\"> <\/a> Note 42.2, Article 5, OECD Commentary  (2003)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"ftn6\">\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref6\" name=\"_ftn6\" title=\"\" id=\"_ftn6\"> <\/a> Note 42.2, Article 5, OECD Commentary  (2003)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"ftn7\">\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref7\" name=\"_ftn7\" title=\"\" id=\"_ftn7\"> <\/a> Note 42.2, Article 5, OECD Commentary  (2003)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"ftn8\">\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref8\" name=\"_ftn8\" title=\"\" id=\"_ftn8\"> <\/a> Note 42.3, Article 5, OECD Commentary  (2003)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"ftn9\">\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref9\" name=\"_ftn9\" title=\"\" id=\"_ftn9\"> <\/a> Note 42.2, Article 5, OECD Commentary  (2003)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"ftn10\">\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref10\" name=\"_ftn10\" title=\"\" id=\"_ftn10\"> <\/a> Western Union Financial Services Inc. v. ADIT [2007]  104 ITD 34 (Income Tax Appellate Tribunal, Delhi)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"ftn11\">\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref11\" name=\"_ftn11\" title=\"\" id=\"_ftn11\"> <\/a>such as banks and post offices<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"ftn12\">\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref12\" name=\"_ftn12\" title=\"\" id=\"_ftn12\"> <\/a> Target Number 4890-13 dated 06th   December, 2013 (Supreme Administrative Court, Sweden)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"ftn13\">\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref13\" name=\"_ftn13\" title=\"\" id=\"_ftn13\"> <\/a> ITO v. Right Florists Pvt. Ltd., [2013]  32 taxmann.com 99 (Income Tax Appellate Tribunal, Kolkata)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"ftn14\">\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref14\" name=\"_ftn14\" title=\"\" id=\"_ftn14\"> <\/a> Case Number 6479-12 dated 16th   September, 2013  (Court of Appeal, Gothenburg-Sweden) <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"ftn15\">\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref15\" name=\"_ftn15\" title=\"\" id=\"_ftn15\"> <\/a> SKM2011.828.SR  (Tax Board, Denmark)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"ftn16\">\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref16\" name=\"_ftn16\" title=\"\" id=\"_ftn16\"> <\/a> Case Number 68\/2001 dated 15th   August, 2001 (Central  Board of Taxation, Finland)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"ftn17\">\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref17\" name=\"_ftn17\" title=\"\" id=\"_ftn17\"> <\/a> Ruling Number IP-PB3-423-891\/08-4\/PS  dated 5th May, 2008 (Ministry of Finance, Poland)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"ftn18\">\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref18\" name=\"_ftn18\" title=\"\" id=\"_ftn18\"> <\/a> Tax Resolution Number 65\/06 dated 13th   March, 2007  (Taxation Authority, Israel).<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"ftn19\">\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref19\" name=\"_ftn19\" title=\"\" id=\"_ftn19\"> <\/a> Resolution Number 00\/2107\/2007 dated 15th   March, 2012 (Central Economic-Administrative Court, Spain)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"ftn20\">\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref20\" name=\"_ftn20\" title=\"\" id=\"_ftn20\"> <\/a> Francis Bennion,&nbsp;Statutory <a name=\"_GoBack\" id=\"_GoBack\"><\/a>Interpretation,&nbsp;Fifth  edition, section 288 at pp. 889-890<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"ftn21\">\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref21\" name=\"_ftn21\" title=\"\" id=\"_ftn21\"> <\/a>State (Through  CBI\/New Delhi)&nbsp;v.&nbsp;S.J.  Choudhary&nbsp;(1996) 2 SCC 428(Supreme Court, India)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"ftn22\">\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref22\" name=\"_ftn22\" title=\"\" id=\"_ftn22\"> <\/a>CIT&nbsp;v.&nbsp;Podar  Cement (P.)Ltd., [1997] 226 ITR 625 (Supreme Court, India)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"ftn23\">\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref23\" name=\"_ftn23\" title=\"\" id=\"_ftn23\"> <\/a>Burger King Corporation v. Rudzewicz  [1985] 471 US 462 (Supreme Court, United States)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"ftn24\">\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref24\" name=\"_ftn24\" title=\"\" id=\"_ftn24\"> <\/a>Verizon  Communications Singapore PTE Ltd. v. ITO, [2013] 39 taxmann.com 70 (High Court,  Madras)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"ftn25\">\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref25\" name=\"_ftn25\" title=\"\" id=\"_ftn25\"> <\/a> The constitution of United States allows the later law to prevail<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"ftn26\">\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref26\" name=\"_ftn26\" title=\"\" id=\"_ftn26\"> <\/a> Note 22, Article 5, OECD Commentary  (1963)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"ftn27\">\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref27\" name=\"_ftn27\" title=\"\" id=\"_ftn27\"> <\/a> Appeal Number 1626\/2008 dated 12th   January, 2012 (Supreme Court, Spain) affirming the Spanish National High  Court Resolution Number 894\/2008 dated 24th January,   2008 (National High  Court, Spain)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"ftn28\">\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref28\" name=\"_ftn28\" title=\"\" id=\"_ftn28\"> <\/a> Resolution Number 00\/2107\/2007 dated 15th   March, 2012 (Central Economic-Administrative Court, Spain). The Court also found that the Irish  parent has agency permanent establishment in the form of Spanish subsidiary<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"ftn29\">\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref29\" name=\"_ftn29\" title=\"\" id=\"_ftn29\"> <\/a> Resolution Number 00\/221\/2009 dated 20th   December, 2012 (Central Economic-Administrative Court, Spain)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"ftn30\">\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref30\" name=\"_ftn30\" title=\"\" id=\"_ftn30\"> <\/a> Previously imported mineral, processed  and sold them to third parties, was transformed into a service provider  (contract-manufacturer) without any apparent change in its size and functions<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"ftn31\">\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref31\" name=\"_ftn31\" title=\"\" id=\"_ftn31\"> <\/a>unloading, transportation, milling,  packing and other administrative services that might be needed like receiving  orders, sending invoices to clients, accountancy<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"ftn32\">\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref32\" name=\"_ftn32\" title=\"\" id=\"_ftn32\"> <\/a> Resolution Number 80\/2008 dated 9th   February, 2011 (National High  Court, Spain)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"ftn33\">\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref33\" name=\"_ftn33\" title=\"\" id=\"_ftn33\"> <\/a> Appeal Number 1933\/2011 dated 18th   June, 2014 (Supreme Court, Spain)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"ftn34\">\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref34\" name=\"_ftn34\" title=\"\" id=\"_ftn34\"> <\/a> 3K 309\/91 dated 11th   May, 1992 (Court  of First Instance, Baden-Wurttemberg- Germany)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"ftn35\">\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref35\" name=\"_ftn35\" title=\"\" id=\"_ftn35\"> <\/a> 3K 54\/93 dated 7th   November, 1996 (Court  of First Instance, Baden-Wurttemberg- Germany). The only major  difference was that the place of business was not rented, but was let to the  German manufacturer without any consideration. The appeal against the said  decision was rejected in IB 26\/97 dated 7th July, 1997 (Supreme Court, Germany)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"ftn36\">\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref36\" name=\"_ftn36\" title=\"\" id=\"_ftn36\"> <\/a>Soci&eacute;t&eacute; Zimmer  Limited, Case Number 304715,  308525 dated 31st March, 2010 (Supreme   Administrative Court, France)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"ftn37\">\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref37\" name=\"_ftn37\" title=\"\" id=\"_ftn37\"> <\/a>Dell Products  v. The State (Tax East), HR-2011-02245-A dated 2nd December, 2011 (Supreme    Court, Norway)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"ftn38\">\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref38\" name=\"_ftn38\" title=\"\" id=\"_ftn38\"> <\/a>Case Number 3769 dated 9th   March, 2012 (Supreme Court, Italy)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>CA Ashish Karundia has conducted a meticulous study into the weaknesses and failures of the traditional concept of a permanent  establishment. He argues, with reference to a multitude of domestic and international judgements, that the PE concept has failed in reaching the objective of legitimate taxation of income that is attributable to an enterprise of the non-resident enterprise<\/p>\n<div class=\"read-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/itatonline.org\/articles_new\/permanent-establishment-the-continuing-conundrum\/\">Read more &#8250;<\/a><\/div>\n<p><!-- end of .read-more --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2250","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/itatonline.org\/articles_new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2250","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/itatonline.org\/articles_new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/itatonline.org\/articles_new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itatonline.org\/articles_new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itatonline.org\/articles_new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2250"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/itatonline.org\/articles_new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2250\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/itatonline.org\/articles_new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itatonline.org\/articles_new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itatonline.org\/articles_new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}