ARTICLE X
U.S. Income Tax Treaty — Canada Income Tax Treaty and Protocols - 1980 · 2026-10-03 edition · updated 2026-10-04 · United States
Dividends
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.
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 a resident of the other Contracting State is the beneficial owner of such 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 10 per cent of the voting stock 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.
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 subjected to the same taxation treatment as income from shares by the taxation laws of the State of which the company making the distribution is a resident.
The provisions of paragraph 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 of fixed base. In such case, the provisions of Article VII (Business Profits) or Article XIV (Independent Personal Services), as the case may be, shall apply.
Where a company is a resident of a Contracting State, the other contracting 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 insofar 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, even if the dividends paid or the undistributed profits consist wholly or partly of profits or income arising in such other State.
Nothing in this Convention shall be construed as preventing a Contracting State from imposing a tax on the earnings of a company attributable to permanent establishments in that State, in addition to the tax which would be chargeable on the earnings of a company which is a resident of that State, provided that any additional tax so imposed shall not exceed 10 per cent of the amount of such earnings which have not been subjected to such additional tax in previous taxation years. For the purposes of this
paragraph, the term "earnings" means the amount by which the business profits attributable to permanent establishments in a Contracting State (including gains from the alienation of property forming part of the business property of such permanent establishments) in a year and previous years exceeds the sum of:
(a) Business losses attributable to such permanent establishments (including losses from the alienation of property forming part of the business property of such permanent establishments) in such year and previous years;
(b) All taxes, other than the additional tax referred to in this paragraph, imposed on such profits in that State;
(c) The profits reinvested in that State, provided that where that State is Canada, such amount shall be determined in accordance with the existing provisions of the law of Canada regarding the computation of the allowance in respect to investment in property in Canada, and any subsequent modification of those provisions which shall not affect the general principle hereof; and
(d) Five hundred thousand Canadian dollars ($500,000) or its equivalent in United States currency, less any amounts deducted by the company, or by an associated company with respect to the same or a similar business, under this subparagraph (d); for the purposes of this subparagraph (d) a company is associated with another company if one company directly or indirectly controls the other, or both companies are directly or indirectly controlled by the same person or persons, or if the two companies deal with each other not at arm's length.
Notwithstanding the provisions of paragraph 5, a Contracting State, other than a Contracting State that imposes the additional tax on earnings referred to in paragraph 6, may tax a dividend paid by a company to the extent that the dividend is attributable to profits earned in taxable years beginning after the date of signature of the Convention if, for the three-year period ending with the close of the company's taxable period preceding the declaration of the dividend (or for such part of that three-year period as the company has been in existence, or for the first taxable year if the dividend was declared in that taxable year), at least 50 per cent of such company's gross income from all sources was included in the computation of the business profits attributable to a permanent establishment which such company had in that State; provided that where a resident of the other Contracting State is the beneficial owner of such dividend any tax so imposed on the dividend shall be subject to the limitations of paragraph 2 or the rules of paragraph 4, as the case may be.
Notwithstanding the provisions of paragraph 5, a company which is a resident of Canada and which has income subject to tax in the United States (without regard to the provisions of the Convention) may be liable to the United States accumulated earnings tax and personal holding company tax but only if 50 per cent or more in value of the outstanding voting shares of the company is owned, directly or indirectly, throughout the last half of its taxable year by citizens or residents of the United States (other than citizens of Canada who do not have immigrant status in the United States or who have not been residents in the United States for more than three taxable years) or by residents of a third State.
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