Singapore - Permanent establishment

Article 4. Permanent establishment

Representative office

1.  For the purposes of this Convention, the term "permanent establishment" means a fixed place of business in which the business of the enterprise is wholly or partly carried on. 

2.  The term "permanent establishment" shall include especially : 

a  a place of e of management; 

b  a branch; 

c  an office; 

d  a factory; 

e  a workshop; 

f  a farm or farm or plantation; 

g  a mine, oil well, quarry or other place of extraction of natural resources; 

h  a building site or construction or assembly project which exists for more than six months. 

Building site/ project

3.  The term "permanent establishment" shall not be deemed to include:

a  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 for 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. 

5. An enterprise of one of the States shall be deemed to have a permanent establishment in the other State if it carries on supervisory activities in that other State for more than six months in connection with a construction, installation or assembly project which is being undertaken in that other State.

Agent

4.  A person acting in one of the States on behalf of an enterprise of the other State (other than an agent of an independent status to whom paragraph 6 applies) shall be deemed to be a permanent establishment in the first-mentioned State if - 

a  he has, and habitually exercises in the first-mentioned State, an authority to conclude contracts in the name of the enterprise, unless his activities are limited to the purchase of goods or merchandise for the enterprise; or 

b  he maintains in the first-mentioned State a stock of goods or merchandise belonging to the enterprise from which he regularly fills orders on behalf of the enterprise. 

Independent agent

6.  An enterprise of one of the States shall not be deemed to have a permanent establishment in the other State merely because it carries on business in that other State through a broker, general commission agent or any other agent of an independent status, where such person is acting in the ordinary course of his business. 

Controlled company

7. The fact that a company which is a resident of one of the States controls or is controlled by a company which is a resident of the other 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.