§ 521.108 - Exemption from, or reduction in rate of, United States tax in the case of dividends, interest and royalties.

§ 521.108 Exemption from, or reduction in rate of, United States tax in the case of dividends, interest and royalties.

(a) Dividends -

(1) General. The tax imposed by the Internal Revenue Code in the case of dividends received from sources within the United States by

(i) a nonresident alien (including a nonresident alien individual, fiduciary and partnership) who is a resident of Denmark, or

(ii) a Danish corporation is, for taxable years beginning on and after January 1, 1948, limited to 15 percent under the provisions of Article VI (relating to dividends) if such alien or corporation, at no time during the taxable year in which such dividends were so derived, had a permanent establishment within the United States. Thus, if a nonresident alien who is a resident of Denmark, performs personal services within the United States during the calendar year 1948 but has at no time during such year a permanent establishment within the United States, he is entitled to the reduced rate of tax with respect to such dividends derived in that year from United States sources, as provided in Article VI of the convention, even though by reason of his having rendered personal services within the United States he is engaged in trade or business therein in that year within the meaning of section 211(b) of the Internal Revenue Code. If, for example, A, a nonresident alien who is a resident of Denmark, derives in 1948, $5,000 compensation for such personal services and his only other income from sources within the United States consists of dividends, the dividends are subject to tax at a rate not to exceed 15 percent and his earned income is subject to normal tax and surtax without taking the dividends into account in determining the tax on such earned income.

(2) Dividends paid by a United States subsidiary corporation. Under the provisions of Article VI(3) of the convention, dividends paid by a domestic corporation to a Danish corporation are subject to tax at the rate of only 5 percent if

(i) such Danish corporation controls, directly or indirectly, at the time the dividend is paid 95 percent or more of the voting power in such domestic corporation,

(ii) not more than 25 percent of the gross income of the domestic corporation for the three-year period immediately preceding the taxable year in which the dividend is paid consists of dividends and interest (other than dividends and interest paid to such domestic corporation by its own subsidiary corporations, if any), and

(iii) the relationship between such domestic corporation and such Danish corporation has not been arranged or maintained primarily with the intention of securing such reduced rate of 5 percent.

(b) Interest and royalties.

(1) Interest, whether on bonds, securities, notes, debentures, or any other form of indebtedness (including interest on obligations of the United States and on obligations of instrumentalities of the United States), and royalties for the right to use copyrights, patents, designs, secret processes and formulae, trade-marks, and other analogous property and royalties (including rentals and like payments in respect of motion picture films) received from sources within the United States by

(i) a nonresident alien (including a nonresident alien individual, fiduciary, and partnership) who is a resident of Denmark, or

(ii) a Danish corporation, are, for taxable years beginning on and after January 1, 1948, exempt from United States tax under the provisions of Articles VII and VIII of the convention if such alien or corporation at no time during the taxable year in which such interest or royalty was so derived had a permanent establishment situated within the United States.

(2) Such interest and royalties are, therefore, not subject to the withholding provisions of the Internal Revenue Code.

(c) Beneficiaries of an estate or trust.

(1) A nonresident alien who is a resident of Denmark and who is a beneficiary of a domestic estate or trust shall be entitled to the exemption, or reduction in the rate of tax, as the case may be, provided in Articles VI, VII and VIII of the convention with respect to dividends, interest and royalties to the extent that such item or items are included in his distributive share of income of such estate or trust if he at no time during the taxable year had a permanent establishment in the United States. In such case such beneficiary must, in order to be entitled to the exemption or reduction in the rate of tax execute Form 101-D or Form 1001A-D (modified to show dividends where applicable) and file such form with the fiduciary of such estate or trust in the United States.

(2) In any case in which dividends, interest or royalties are derived from United States sources by a Danish estate or trust, any beneficiary of such estate or trust who is not a resident of Denmark, or who has a permanent establishment in the United States, is not entitled to any exemption under the convention with respect to such income included in his distributive share of the income of the estate or trust.