Article 5 - Permanent establishment - Bulgaria

ARTICLE 5 PERMANENT ESTABLISHMENT 1. For the purposes of this Convention, the term permanent establishment means a fixed place of business through which the business of the enterprise is wholly or partly carried on separately or together with other persons. 2. The term permanent establishment includes especially : (a) a place of management; (b) a branch; (c) an office; (d) a factory; (e) a workshop; (f) a mine, an oil or gas well, a quarry or any other place of extraction of natural resources; (g) a warehouse in relation to a person providing storage facilities for others; (h) an installation on structure used for the exploration or exploitation of natural resources; (i) a building site or construction, installation or assembly project or supervisory activities in connection therewith, where such site, projects or activities (together with other such sites, projects or activities, if any) continue for a period of more than six months : Provided that for the purpose of this paragraph an enterprise shall be deemed to have a permanent establishment in a Contracting State and to carry on business through that permanent establishment if it provides services or facilities in connection with or supplies plant and machinery on hire, used or to be used in the prospecting for, or extraction or production of mineral oils in the State. 3. Notwithstanding the preceding provisions of this Article, 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 stock of goods or merchandise belonging to the enterprise solely for the purpose of processing by another enterprise; (d) the maintenance of a fixed place of business solely for the purpose of purchasing goods or merchandise, or of collecting information, for the enterprise; (e) the maintenance of a fixed place of business solely for the purpose of advertising, for the supply of information, for scientific research, or for similar activities which have a preparatory or auxiliary character, for the enterprise; (f) the selling of goods or merchandise belonging to the enterprises displayed in an occasional temporary fair or exhibition in the process of closing down of such fair or exhibition; and (g) the maintenance of a fixed place of business solely for any combination of activities mentioned in sub-paragraphs (a) to (f), provided that overall activity of the fixed place of business resulting from this combination is of a preparatory or auxiliary character. However, the provisions of sub-paragraphs (a) to (g) shall not be applicable where the enterprise maintains any other fixed place of business in the other Contracting State for any purposes other than the purposes specified in the said sub-paragraphs. 4. Notwithstanding the provisions of paragraphs 1 and 2, where a person - other than an agent of an independent status to whom paragraph 5 applies - is acting in a Contracting State on behalf of an enterprise of the other Contracting State, that enterprise shall be deemed to have a permanent establishment in the first-mentioned Contracting 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 the enterprise; (b) he has no such authority, but habitually maintains in the first-mentioned State a stock of goods or merchandise from which he regularly delivers goods or merchandise on behalf of the enterprise; (c) he habitually secures orders in the first-mentioned State, wholly or almost wholly for the enterprise itself or for the enterprise and other enterprises in which the first-mentioned enterprise has a majority participation, or for the enterprise and other enterprises which have a majority participation in the first-mentioned enterprise. 5. An enterprise of a Contracting State shall not be deemed to have a permanent establishment in the other Contracting State merely because it carried on business in that other State through a broker, a general commission agent or any other agent of an independent status, provided that such persons are acting in the ordinary course of their business. 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 State (whether through a permanent establishment or otherwise), shall not of itself constitute either company a permanent establishment of the other.