Article 5 - Permanent Establishment - Latvia

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; (f) a sales outlet; (g) a warehouse in relation to a person providing storage facilities for others; (h) a farm, plantation or other place where agricultural, forestry, plantation or related activities are carried on; and (i) a mine, an oil or gas well, a quarry or any other place of extraction of natural resources. 3. The term permanent establishment shall also include: (a) a building site or construction, installation or assembly project, or supervisory activity connected therewith, but only if such site, project or activity lasts more than nine months; (b) the furnishing of services, including consultancy services, by an enterprise of a Contracting State through its employees or other personnel engaged by the enterprise for such purpose, but only where such activities continue (for the same or a connected project) in the other Contracting State for a period or periods exceeding in the aggregate six months in any twelve-month period; (c) activities carried on offshore in a Contracting State in connection with the exploration or exploitation of the sea bed and sub-soil and their natural resources, but only if such activities are carried on for a period or periods exceeding in the aggregate 30 days in any twelve-month period. 4. Notwithstanding the preceding provisions of this Article, the term permanent establishment shall be deemed not to include: (a) the use of facilities solely for the purpose of storage, display or delivery 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, display or delivery; (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 carrying on, for the enterprise, any other activity of a preparatory or auxiliary character; (f) the maintenance of a fixed place of business solely for any combination of activities mentioned in subparagraphs (a) to (e), provided that the overall activity of the fixed place of business resulting from this combination is of a preparatory or auxiliary character. 5. Notwithstanding the provisions of paragraphs 1 and 2, where a person - other than an agent of an independent status to whom paragraph 6 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 in respect of any activities which that person undertakes for the enterprise, if such a person: (a) has and habitually exercises in that State an authority to conclude contracts in the name of the enterprise, unless the activities of such person are limited to those mentioned in paragraph 4 which, if exercised through a fixed place of business, would not make this fixed place of business a permanent establishment under the provisions of that paragraph; or (b) 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; or (c) habitually secures orders in the first-mentioned State, wholly or almost wholly for the enterprise itself. 6. An enterprise shall not be deemed to have a permanent establishment in a Contracting State merely because it carries on business in that 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, where the activities of such an agent are devoted wholly or almost wholly on behalf of that enterprise, and where the conditions between the agent and the enterprise differ from those which would be made between independent persons, such agent shall not be considered an agent of an independent status within the meaning of this paragraph. In such case, provisions of paragraph 5 shall apply. 7. 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 that other State (whether through a permanent establishment or otherwise), shall not of itself constitute either company a permanent establishment of the other.