Article 10 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 the beneficial owner of the dividends is a resident of the other Contracting State, the tax so charged shall not exceed:

The competent authorities of the Contracting States shall by mutual agreement settle the mode of application of paragraph 2.

The provisions of paragraph 2 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, ‘jouissance’ shares or ‘jouissance’ rights, mining shares, founders’ shares or other rights participating in profits, as well as income from debt-claims participating in profits and 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.

The provisions of paragraphs 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.

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 other 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.

The provisions of this Article shall not apply if it was the main purpose or one of the main purposes of any person concerned with the creation or assignment of the shares or other rights in respect of which the dividend is paid to take advantage of this Article by means of that creation or assignment.

Notwithstanding the provisions of paragraphs 1, 2 and 7, dividends paid by a company whose capital is divided into shares and which under the laws of a State is a resident of that State, to an individual who is a resident of the other State may be taxed in the first-mentioned State in accordance with the laws of that State, if that individual — either alone or with his or her spouse — or one of their relations by blood or marriage in the direct line directly or indirectly holds at least 5 per cent of the issued capital of a particular class of shares in that company. This provision shall apply only if the individual to whom the dividends are paid has been a resident of the first-mentioned State in the course of the last ten years preceding the year in which the dividends are paid and provided that, at the time the individual became a resident of the other State, the above-mentioned conditions regarding share ownership in the said company were satisfied.

In cases where, under the domestic laws of the first-mentioned State, an assessment has been issued to the individual to whom the dividends are paid in respect of the alienation of the aforesaid shares deemed to have taken place at the time of the individual's emigration from the first-mentioned State, the above shall apply only as long as part of the assessment is still due.

If under any convention for the avoidance of double taxation concluded after the date of conclusion of this Convention between the Republic of South Africa and a third country, South Africa limits its taxation on dividends as contemplated in subparagraph a) of paragraph 2 of this Article to a rate lower, including exemption from taxation or taxation on a reduced taxable base, than the rate provided for in sub-paragraph a) of paragraph 2 of this Article, the same rate, the same exemption or the same reduced taxable base as provided for in the convention with that third State shall automatically apply in both Contracting States under this Convention as from the date of the entry into force of the convention with that third State.