Saudi Arabia - Permanent establishment

Article 5. Permanent establishment

Representative office

1.  For the purpose of this Convention, 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 but is not limited to:

a.  a place of management; 

b.  a branch; 

c.  an office; 

d.  a factory; 

e.  a workshop; 

f.  a mine, a quarry or any other place of extraction of natural resources. 

Building site/ project

3.  The term “permanent establishment” also includes:

a.  a building site, a construction, assembly or installation project, or supervisory activities in connection therewith, but only where such site, project or activities continue for a period of more than six months; 

b.  the furnishing of services, including consultancy services, by an enterprise through employees or other personnel engaged by the enterprise for such purpose, but only where activities of that nature continue (for the same or a connected project) within a Contracting State for a period or periods aggregating more than six months within any 12-month period; 

c.  a person acting in one of the two Contracting States on behalf of an enterprise of the other Contracting State - other than an agent of an independent status to whom the provisions of paragraph 5 of this Article apply - if this person has in the first mentioned Contracting State an authority to conclude contracts in the name of that enterprise and habitually exercises such authority in it, in respect of any activities which that person undertakes for the enterprise. 

4.  Notwithstanding the preceding provisions of this Article a permanent establishment does not include:

a.  the use of facilities for the sole 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 for the sole purpose of storage, display or delivery; 

c.  the maintenance of a stock of goods or merchandise belonging to the enterprise for the sole purpose of processing by another enterprise; 

d.  the maintenance of a fixed place of business for the sole purpose of purchasing goods or merchandise or of collecting information for the enterprise;

e.  the maintenance of a fixed place of business for the sole purpose of advertising, conducting scientific research, or similar activities of preliminary or auxiliary nature for the enterprise; 

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. 

Agent

5. An enterprise in one of the two Contracting States shall not be deemed to have a permanent establishment in the other 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 this broker or agent is acting in the ordinary course of his business.

Independent agent

6. An enterprise in one of the two Contracting States shall not be deemed to have a permanent establishment in the other Contracting State merely because it carries on at the end of a trade exhibition or conference in the other Contracting State sale of goods or merchandise it displayed at that trade exhibition or conference.

Controlled company

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.