Article 3 - General definitions - Germany

ARTICLE 3 GENERAL DEFINITIONS 1. For the purposes of this Agreement, unless the context otherwise requires, (a) the term Federal Republic of Germany means the area in which the tax law of the Federal Republic of Germany is in force including the area of the sea-bed, its sub-soil and the superjacent water column adjacent to the territorial sea, insofar as the Federal Republic of Germany exercises their sovereign rights and jurisdiction in conformity with international law and its national legislation ; (b) the term Republic of India means the territory of the Republic of India and includes the territorial sea and airspace above it. For the purposes of this Agreement the term shall also cover any other maritime zone in which the Republic of India has sovereign rights, other rights and jurisdictions, according to the Indian law and in accordance with international law in particular as laid down in the UN Convention of the Law of the Sea ; (c) the terms a Contracting State and the other Contracting State mean the Federal Republic of Germany or the Republic of India as the context requires ; (d) the term person includes an individual, a company and any other entity which is treated as a taxable unit under the taxation laws in force in the respective Contracting States ; (e) the term company means any body corporate or any entity which is treated as a company or body corporate under the taxation laws in force in the respective Contracting States ; (f) the term immovable property has the meaning which it has under the law of the Contracting State in which the property in question is situated. The term shall in any case include property accessory to immovable property, livestock and equipment used in agriculture and forestry, rights to which the provisions of general law respecting landed property apply, usufruct of immovable property and rights to variable or fixed payments as consideration for the working of, or the right to work, mineral deposits, sources and other natural resources; ships, boats and aircraft shall not be regarded as immovable property ; (g) the terms enterprise of a Contracting State and enterprise of the other Contracting State mean respectively an enterprise carried on by a resident of a Contracting State and an enterprise carried on by a resident of the other Contracting State ; (h) the term national means, (i) in respect of the Federal Republic of Germany any German within the meaning of Article 116, paragraph (1), of the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany and any legal person, partnership and association deriving its status as such from the law in force in the Federal Republic of Germany ; (ii) in respect of the Republic of India any national of the Republic of India and any legal person, partnership and association deriving its status as such from the law in force in the Republic of India ; (i) the term international traffic means any transport by a ship or aircraft operated by an enterprise which has its place of effective management in a Contracting State except when the ship or aircraft is operated solely between places in the other Contracting State ; (j) the term competent authority means in the case of the Federal Republic of Germany the Federal Ministry of Finance, and in the case of the Republic of India the Central Government in the Ministry of Finance (Department of Revenue) or its authorised representative ; (k) the term fiscal year means,- (i) in relation to Indian tax, the previous year as defined in the Income-tax Act, 1961 ; (ii) in relation to German tax, the calendar year ; (l) the term tax means German tax or Indian tax as the context requires but shall not include interest or penalty imposed in relation to such taxes. 2. As regards the application of this Agreement by a Contracting State any term not defined therein shall, unless the context otherwise requires, have the meaning which it has under the law of that State concerning the taxes to which this Agreement applies.