Brazil - Dividend

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 15 per cent of the gross amount of the dividends. 

3.  This paragraph shall not affect the taxation of the company in respect of the profits out of which the dividends are paid. 

4.  The term “dividends” as used in this Article means income from shares, “jouissance” shares or “jouissance” rights, mining shares, founders' 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 paragraph 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, and the holding in respect of which the dividends are paid is effectively connected with such permanent establishment. In such case the provisions of Article 7 shall apply. 

6.  Where a resident of a Contracting State has a permanent establishment in the other Contracting State, this permanent establishment may be subject to a tax withheld at source in accordance with the internal law of that State. However, such a tax shall not exceed 15 per cent of the gross amount of the profits of that permanent establishment determined after the payment of the corporate tax related to such profits. 

7.  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 insofar as the holding in respect of which the dividends are paid is effectively connected with a permanent establishment situated in that 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. 

8.  The tax rate limitations referred to in paragraphs 2 and 5 shall not apply to dividends or profits paid before the end of the first calendar year following the year of signature of this Convention. 

Protocol:

With reference to Article 10, 11 and 12:

a Where tax has been levied at source in excess of the amount of tax chargeable under the provisions of Articles 10, 11 or 12, applications for the refund of the excess amount of tax have to be lodged with the competent authority of the Contracting State having levied the tax, within a period of five years after the expiration of the calendar year in which the tax has been levied.

b The competent authority of a Contracting State may settle the mode of application of the Articles 10, 11 and 12.

With reference to Articles 10 and 23:

It is understood that the value of shares issued by a corporation of a Contracting State and received by a resident of the other Contracting State shall not be subject to tax as income in either Contracting State.