Article 10 - Dividends - Singapore

ARTICLE 10 DIVIDENDS 1. Dividends paid by a company which is a resident of a Contracting State to a resident of the other Contracting State may be taxed in that other State. 2. However, such dividends may also be taxed in the Contracting State of which the company paying the dividends is a resident and according to the laws of that State, but if the recipient is the beneficial owner of the dividends, the tax so charged shall not exceed: (a) 10 per cent of the gross amount of the dividends if the beneficial owner is a company which owns at least 25 per cent of the shares of the company paying the dividends; (b) 15 per cent of the gross amount of the dividends in all other cases. This paragraph shall not affect the taxation of the company in respect of the profits out of which the dividends are paid. 3. Notwithstanding the provisions of paragraph 2 of this Article, as long as Singapore does not impose a tax on dividends in addition to the tax chargeable on the profits or income of a company, dividends paid by a company which is a resident of Singapore to a resident of India shall be exempt from any tax in Singapore which may be chargeable on dividends in addition to the tax chargeable on the profits or income of the company. 4. The term dividends as used in this Article means income from shares or other rights not being debt-claims, participating in profits, as well as income from other corporate rights which is subjected to the same taxation treatment as income from shares by the laws of the State of which the company making the distribution is a resident. 5. The provisions of paragraphs 1 and 2 shall not apply if the beneficial owner 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 independent personal 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 case, the provisions of Article 7 or Article 14, as the case may be, shall apply. 6. Where a company which is a resident of a Contracting State derives profits or income from the other Contracting State, that other 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 so far 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 the company's 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. (a) Dividends shall be deemed to arise in India if they are paid by a company which is a resident of India; (b) Dividends shall be deemed to arise in Singapore: (i) if they are paid by a company which is a resident of Singapore; or (ii) if they are paid by a company which is a resident of Malaysia out of profits arising in Singapore and qualifying as dividends arising in Singapore under Article VII of the Agreement for the Avoidance of Double Taxation between Singapore and Malaysia signed on 26th December, 1968.