The Permanent Establishment Concept In Double Tax Agreements Between Developed And Developing Countries: Canada/South Africa As A Case In Point

Abstract

In this era of globalisation, developing countries have resorted to double tax agreements in order to attract foreign direct investment. The extent to which a country’s tax treaty policy favours developing countries or not depends upon the extent to which the country is prepared to adopt provisions from the UN model tax convention as opposed to the OECD model. Developing countries in particular should carefully consider the design of their tax treaties so as to effectively combat tax avoidance, without sacrificing foreign direct investment. To this end, the Canada/South Africa tax treaty is compared and contrasted with these two models. The concept of permanent establishment is reviewed in this context. It was found that the Canada/South Africa tax treaty is overwhelmingly based on the OECD model. This could indicate that South Africa has a deliberate tax treaty policy of ceding taxing rights to other countries. Thus, developing countries are seemingly unable or unwilling to make use of the UN model so as to retain greater source taxation. A number of recommendations are made to broaden the scope for the source taxation of business income in the developing country.