The Double Taxation Relief (Taxes on Income) (Canada) Order 1980

ARTICLE 10 Dividends

1.  Dividends paid by a company which is a resident of Canada to a resident of the United Kingdom may be taxed in the United Kingdom. Such dividends may also be taxed in Canada, and according to the laws of Canada, but provided that the beneficial owner of the dividends is a resident of the United Kingdom the tax so charged shall not exceed 15 per cent of the gross amount of the dividends.

2.  Dividends paid by a company which is a resident of the United Kingdom to a resident of Canada may be taxed in Canada. Such dividends may also be taxed in the United Kingdom, and according to the laws of the United Kingdom, but provided that the beneficial owner of the dividends is a resident of Canada the tax so charged shall not exceed 15 per cent of the gross amount of the dividends.

3.  However, as long as an individual resident in the United Kingdom is entitled to a tax credit in respect of dividends paid by a company resident in the United Kingdom, the following provisions of this paragraph shall apply instead of the provisions of paragraph 2 of this Article:

(a) (i) Dividends paid by a company which is a resident of the United Kingdom to a resident of Canada may be taxed in Canada.

(ii) Where a resident of Canada is entitled to a tax credit in respect of such a dividend under sub-paragraph (b) of this paragraph, tax may also be charged in the United Kingdom and according to the laws of the United Kingdom, on the aggregate of the amount or value of that dividend and the amount of that tax credit at a rate not exceeding 15 per cent.

(iii) Except as provided in sub-paragraph (a) (ii) of this paragraph, dividends paid by a company which is a resident of the United Kingdom to a resident of Canada who is the beneficial owner of those dividends shall be exempt from any tax which is chargeable in the United Kingdom on dividends.

(b) A resident of Canada who receives a dividend from a company which is a resident of the United Kingdom shall, subject to the provisions of sub-paragraph (c) of this paragraph and provided he is the beneficial owner of the dividend, be entitled to the tax credit in respect thereof to which an individual resident in the United Kingdom would have been entitled had he received that dividend, and to payment of any excess of such credit over his liability to United Kingdom tax.

(c) The provisions of sub-paragraph (b) of this paragraph shall not apply where the beneficial owner of the dividend is a company which, either alone or together with one or more associated companies, controls directly or indirectly at least 10 per cent of the voting power in the company paying the dividend. For the purposes of this sub-paragraph two companies shall be deemed to be associated if one is controlled directly or indirectly by the other or both are controlled directly or indirectly by a third company.

4.  The term “ dividends” as used in this Article means income from shares, “jouissance” shares or “jouissance” rights, mining shares, founders' shares or other rights not being debt-claims, participating in profits, as well as income assimilated to or treated in the same way as income from shares by the taxation law of the State of which the company making the payment is a resident.

5.  The provisions of paragraphs 1, 2 and 3 shall not apply if the recipient of the dividends, being a resident of a Contracting State, carries on business in the other Contracting State of which the company paying the dividends is a resident, through a permanent establishment situated therein, or performs in that other State professional services from a fixed base situated therein, and the holding in respect of which the dividends are paid is effectively connected with such permanent establishment or fixed base. In such a case, the provisions of Article 7 or Article 14, as the case may be, shall apply.

6.  Where a company is a resident of only one Contracting State, the other Contracting State may not impose any tax on the dividends paid by the company, except insofar as such dividends are paid to a resident of that other State or insofar as the holding in respect of which the dividends are paid is effectively connected with a permanent establishment or a fixed base situated in that other State, nor subject the company's undistributed profits to a tax on undistributed profits, even if the dividends paid or the undistributed profits consist wholly or partly of profits or income arising in such other State.

7.  If a resident of Canada does not bear Canadian tax on dividends derived from a company which is a resident of the United Kingdom and owns 10 per cent or more of the class of shares in respect of which the dividends are paid, then neither paragraph 2 nor 3 shall apply to the dividends to the extent that they can have been paid only out of profits which the company paying the dividends earned or other income which it received in a period ending twelve months or more before the relevant date. For the purposes of this paragraph the term “ relevant date” means the date on which the beneficial owner of the dividends became the owner of 10 per cent or more of the class of shares referred to above.

Provided that this paragraph shall not apply if the shares were acquired for bona fide commercial reasons and not primarily for the purpose of securing the benefit of this Article.