United Kingdom Statutory Instruments

(a) that the arrangements specified in the Agreement set out in the Schedule to this Order have been made with the Government of Georgia with a view to affording relief from double taxation in relation to income tax, corporation tax or capital gains tax and taxes of a similar character imposed by the laws of Georgia;

(b) that those arrangements include provisions with respect to the exchange of information foreseeably relevant to the administration or enforcement of the domestic laws of the United Kingdom and the laws of Georgia concerning taxes covered by the arrangements including, in particular, provisions about the prevention of fiscal evasion with respect to those taxes; and

(c) that it is expedient that those arrangements should have effect.

A. K. Galloway
Clerk of the Privy Council

(a) in the case of Georgia:


(i) the tax on profit (income) of enterprises;

(ii) the tax on property of enterprises;

(iii) the tax on income of individuals; and

(iv) the tax on property of individuals;



(hereinafter referred to as "Georgian tax");

(b) in the case of the United Kingdom:



(i) the income tax;

(ii) the corporation tax; and

(iii) the capital gains tax;



(hereinafter referred to as "United Kingdom tax").

    (4) This Agreement shall also apply to any identical or substantially similar taxes that are imposed by either Contracting State after the date of signature of this Agreement in addition to, or in place of, the existing taxes. The competent authorities of the Contracting States shall notify each other of any significant changes that have been made in their taxation laws.

(a) the term "Georgia" means the territory within the state borders of Georgia, including land territory, internal waters and territorial sea, the air space above them, in respect of which Georgia exercises its sovereignty, as well as the exclusive economic zone and continental shelf adjacent to its territorial sea in respect of which Georgia may exercise its sovereign rights in accordance with international law;

(b) the term "United Kingdom" means Great Britain and Northern Ireland, including any area outside the territorial sea of the United Kingdom which in accordance with international law has been or may hereafter be designated, under the laws of the United Kingdom concerning the Continental Shelf, as an area within which the rights of the United Kingdom with respect to the sea bed and sub-soil and their natural resources may be exercised;

(c) the terms "a Contracting State" and "the other Contracting State" mean Georgia or the United Kingdom, as the context requires;

(d) the term "person" includes an individual, a company and any other body of persons, and does not include a partnership;

(e) the term "company" means any body corporate or any entity that is treated as a body corporate for tax purposes;

(f) the term "enterprise" applies to the carrying on of any business;

(g) the terms "enterprise of a Contracting State" and "enterprise of the other Contracting State" mean respectively an enterprise carried on by a resident of a Contracting State and an enterprise carried on by a resident of the other Contracting State;

(h) the term "international traffic" means any transport by a ship or aircraft operated by an enterprise that has its place of effective management in a Contracting State, except when the ship or aircraft is operated solely between places in the other Contracting State;

(i) the term "competent authority" means:


(i) in the case of Georgia, the Ministry of Finance or its authorised representative;

(ii) in the case of the United Kingdom, the Commissioners of Inland Revenue or their authorised representative;



(j) the term "national" means:



(i) in relation to Georgia, any individual possessing the citizenship of Georgia and any legal person or association deriving its status as such from the law in force in Georgia;

(ii) in relation to the United Kingdom, any British citizen, or any British subject not possessing the citizenship of any other Commonwealth country or territory, provided he has the right of abode in the United Kingdom; and any legal person, partnership, association or other entity deriving its status as such from the law in force in the United Kingdom;



(k) the term "business" (economic activity) includes the performance of professional services and of other activities of an independent character;

(l) the term "capital" means movable and immovable property. It includes especially, but is not limited to, cash, shares or other documents evidencing property rights and bonds or other debt liabilities. It also includes patents, trade marks, copyrights or similar rights and property.

    (2) As regards the application of this Agreement at any time by a Contracting State, any term not defined therein shall, unless the context otherwise requires, have the meaning that it has at that time under the laws of that State for the purposes of the taxes to which this Agreement applies, any meaning under the applicable tax laws of that State prevailing over a meaning given to the term under other laws of that State.

(a) he shall be deemed to be a resident only of the Contracting State in which he has a permanent home available to him; if he has a permanent home available to him in both States, he shall be deemed to be a resident only of the State with which his personal and economic relations are closer (centre of vital interests);

(b) if the Contracting State in which he has his centre of vital interests cannot be determined, or if he does not have a permanent home available to him in either State, he shall be deemed to be a resident only of the State in which he has an habitual abode;

(c) if he has an habitual abode in both Contracting States or in neither of them, he shall be deemed to be a resident only of the State of which he is a national;

(d) if he is a national of neither Contracting State, the competent authorities of the Contracting States shall settle the question by mutual agreement.

    (3) Where by reason of the provisions of paragraph (1) of this Article a person other than an individual is a resident of both Contracting States, then it shall be deemed to be a resident only of the State in which its place of effective management is situated.

(a) a place of management;

(b) a branch;

(c) an office;

(d) a factory;

(e) a workshop;

(f) a pipeline; and

(g) a mine, an oil or gas well, a quarry or any other place of extraction of natural resources.

    (3) A building site or construction or installation project constitutes a permanent establishment only if it lasts more than six months.

    (4) Notwithstanding the preceding provisions of this Article, the term "permanent establishment" shall be deemed not to include:

(a) the 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 of collecting information, for the enterprise;

(e) the maintenance of a fixed place of business solely for the purpose of carrying on, for the enterprise, any other activity of a preparatory or auxiliary character;

(f) the maintenance of a fixed place of business solely for any combination of activities mentioned in sub-paragraphs (a) to (e) of this paragraph, provided that the overall activity of the fixed place of business resulting from this combination is of a preparatory or auxiliary character.

    (5) Notwithstanding the provisions of paragraphs (1) and (2) of this Article, where a person-other than an agent of an independent status to whom paragraph (6) of this Article applies-is acting on behalf of an enterprise and has, and habitually exercises, in a Contracting State an authority to conclude contracts on behalf of the enterprise, that enterprise shall be deemed to have a permanent establishment in that State in respect of any activities which that person undertakes for the enterprise, unless the activities of such person are limited to those mentioned in paragraph (4) of this Article which, if exercised through a fixed place of business, would not make this fixed place of business a permanent establishment under the provisions of that paragraph.

    (6) An enterprise shall not be deemed to have a permanent establishment in a Contracting State merely because it carries on business in that State through a broker, general commission agent or any other agent of an independent status, provided that such persons are acting in the ordinary course of their business.

    (7) The fact that a company which is a resident of a Contracting State controls or is controlled by a company which is a resident of the other Contracting 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.

(a) an enterprise of a Contracting State participates directly or indirectly in the management, control or capital of an enterprise of the other Contracting State; or

(b) the same persons participate directly or indirectly in the management, control or capital of an enterprise of a Contracting State and an enterprise of the other Contracting State;

and in either case conditions are made or imposed between the two enterprises in their commercial or financial relations which differ from those which would be made between independent enterprises, then any profits which would, but for those conditions, have accrued to one of the enterprises, but, by reason of those conditions, have not so accrued, may be included by a Contracting State in the profits of that enterprise and taxed accordingly.

    (2) Where a Contracting State includes in the profits of an enterprise of that State-and taxes accordingly-profits on which an enterprise of the other Contracting State has been charged to tax in that other State and the profits so included are profits which would have accrued to the enterprise of the first-mentioned State if the conditions made between the two enterprises had been those which would have been made between independent enterprises, then that other State shall make an appropriate adjustment to the amount of the tax charged therein on those profits. In determining such adjustment, due regard shall be had to the other provisions of this Agreement and the competent authorities of the Contracting States shall if necessary consult each other.

(a) shall be exempt from tax in the Contracting State of which the company paying the dividends is a resident if the beneficial owner is a company which is a resident of the other Contracting State and controls, directly or indirectly, at least 50 per cent of the voting power in the company paying the dividends and has invested at least £2 million (or the equivalent amount in the currency of Georgia) in the share capital of the company paying the dividends at the date of payment of the dividends;

(b) except as provided in sub-paragraph (a) of this paragraph, 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:


(i) 5 per cent of the gross amount of the dividends if the beneficial owner is a company which controls, directly or indirectly, at least 10 per cent of the voting power in the company paying the dividends;

(ii) 10 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.

    (3) The term "dividends" as used in this Article means income from shares, 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 Contracting State of which the company making the distribution is a resident and also includes any other item which, under the laws of the State of which the company paying the dividend is a resident, is treated as a dividend or distribution of a company.

    (4) The provisions of paragraphs (1) and (2) of this Article 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 of this Agreement shall apply.

    (5) 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 undistributed profits, even if the dividends paid or the undistributed profits consist wholly or partly of profits or income arising in that other State.

    (6) 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.

(a) shares, other than shares in which there is substantial and regular trading on a recognised Stock Exchange, deriving more than half of their value directly or indirectly from immovable property situated in the other Contracting State, or

(b) an interest in a partnership or trust the assets of which consist principally of immovable property situated in the other Contracting State, or of shares referred to in sub-paragraph (a) of this paragraph,

may be taxed in that other State.

    (3) Gains from the alienation of movable property forming part of the business property of a permanent establishment which an enterprise of a Contracting State has in the other Contracting State, including such gains from the alienation of such a permanent establishment (alone or with the whole enterprise), may be taxed in that other State.

    (4) Gains derived by a resident of a Contracting State from the alienation of ships or aircraft operated in international traffic by an enterprise of that Contracting State or movable property pertaining to the operation of such ships or aircraft, shall be taxable only in that State.

    (5) Gains from the alienation of any property other than that referred to in paragraphs (1), (2), (3) and (4) of this Article shall be taxable only in the Contracting State of which the alienator is a resident.

    (6) The provisions of this Article shall not affect the right of a Contracting State to levy according to its law a tax chargeable in respect of gains from the alienation of any property on a person who is a resident of that State at any time during the fiscal year in which the property is alienated, or has been so resident at any time during the six fiscal years immediately preceding that year.

(a) the recipient is present in the other State for a period or periods not exceeding in the aggregate 183 days in any twelve month period commencing or ending in the fiscal year concerned; and

(b) the remuneration is paid by, or on behalf of, an employer who is not a resident of the other State; and

(c) the remuneration is not borne by a permanent establishment which the employer has in the other State.

    (3) Notwithstanding the preceding provisions of this Article, remuneration derived in respect of an employment exercised aboard a ship or aircraft operated in international traffic may be taxed in the Contracting State in which the place of effective management of the enterprise is situated.

(a) pensions and other similar remuneration paid in consideration of past employment, and

(b) any annuity paid,

to an individual who is a resident of a Contracting State shall be taxable only in that State.

    (2) The term "annuity" means a stated sum payable to an individual periodically at stated times during his life or during a specified or ascertainable period of time under an obligation to make the payments in return for adequate and full consideration in money or money's worth.

(a) Salaries, wages and other similar remuneration, other than a pension, paid by a Contracting State or a political subdivision or a local authority thereof to an individual in respect of services rendered to that State or subdivision or authority shall be taxable only in that State.

(b) However, such salaries, wages and other similar remuneration shall be taxable only in the other Contracting State if the services are rendered in that State and the individual is a resident of that State who:


(i) is a national of that State; or

(ii) did not become a resident of that State solely for the purpose of rendering the services.

    (2)

(a) Any pension paid by, or out of funds created by, a Contracting State or a political subdivision or a local authority thereof to an individual in respect of services rendered to that State or subdivision or authority shall be taxable only in that State.

(b) However, such pension shall be taxable only in the other Contracting State if the individual is a resident of, and a national of, that State.

    (3) The provisions of Articles 14, 15, 16 and 17 of this Agreement shall apply to salaries, wages and other similar remuneration, and to pensions, in respect of services rendered in connection with a business carried on by a Contracting State or a political subdivision or a local authority thereof.

(a) all remittances made from abroad for the purpose of his maintenance, education or training; and

(b) all scholarships, grants, allowances and awards from governmental, charitable, scientific, literary or educational organisations for the purpose of his maintenance, education or training.

ARTICLE 20
Professors, teachers and researchers

    (1) A professor, teacher or researcher who visits one of the Contracting States for a period not exceeding two years for the purpose of teaching or engaging in research at a university, college, school or other establishment for teaching or research in that State, and who immediately before that visit was a resident of the other Contracting State, shall be taxable only in that other State on any remuneration for such teaching or research. However, this paragraph shall apply only for a period not exceeding two years from the date the individual first visits the first-mentioned State for such purpose.

    (2) The provisions of this Article shall apply to income from research only if such research is undertaken by the individual in the public interest and not primarily for the benefit of some other private person or persons.

(a) Where a resident of Georgia derives income or owns capital which, in accordance with the provisions of this Agreement, may be taxed in the United Kingdom, Georgia shall allow:


(i) as a deduction from the tax on the income of that resident, an amount equal to the income tax paid in the United Kingdom;

(ii) as a deduction from the tax on the capital of that resident, an amount equal to the capital tax paid in the United Kingdom;



Such deduction in either case shall not, however, exceed that part of the income tax or capital tax, as computed before the deduction is given, which is attributable, as the case may be, to the income or the capital which may be taxed in Georgia.

(b) Where in accordance with any provision of the Agreement income derived or capital owned by a resident of Georgia is exempt from tax in the United Kingdom, Georgia may nevertheless, in calculating the amount of tax on the remaining income or capital of such resident, take into account the exempted income or capital.

    (2) Subject to the provisions of the law of the United Kingdom regarding the allowance as a credit against United Kingdom tax of tax payable in a territory outside the United Kingdom (which shall not affect the general principle hereof):

(a) Georgian tax payable under the laws of Georgia and in accordance with this Agreement, whether directly or by deduction, on profits, income or chargeable gains from sources within Georgia (excluding in the case of a dividend, tax payable in respect of the profits out of which the dividend is paid) shall be allowed as a credit against any United Kingdom tax computed by reference to the same profits, income or chargeable gains by reference to which the Georgian tax is computed;

(b) in the case of a dividend paid by a company which is a resident of Georgia to a company which is a resident of the United Kingdom and which controls directly or indirectly at least 10 per cent of the voting power in the company paying the dividend, the credit shall take into account (in addition to any Georgian tax for which credit may be allowed under the provisions of sub-paragraph (a) of this paragraph) the Georgian tax payable by the company in respect of the profits out of which such dividend is paid.

    (3) For the purposes of paragraph (2) of this Article, profits, income and capital gains owned by a resident of a Contracting State which may be taxed in the other Contracting State in accordance with this Agreement shall be deemed to arise from sources in that other State.

(a) to carry out administrative measures at variance with the laws and administrative practice of that or of the other Contracting State;

(b) to supply information which is not obtainable under the laws or in the normal course of the administration of that or of the other Contracting State;

(c) to supply information which would disclose any trade, business, industrial, commercial or professional secret or trade process, or information the disclosure of which would be contrary to public policy.

ARTICLE 28
Members of diplomatic missions and consular posts

Nothing in this Agreement shall affect the fiscal privileges of members of diplomatic missions or consular posts under the general rules of international law or under the provisions of special agreements.

(a) in Georgia, in respect of taxes chargeable, for any fiscal year beginning on or after 1st January in the calendar year next following that in which this Agreement enters into force;

(b) in the United Kingdom:


(i) in respect of income tax and capital gains tax, for any year of assessment beginning on or after 6th April in the calendar year next following that in which this Agreement enters into force;

(ii) in respect of corporation tax, for any financial year beginning on or after 1st April in the calendar year next following that in which this Agreement enters into force.

ARTICLE 30
Termination

This Agreement shall remain in force until terminated by a Contracting State. Either Contracting State may terminate the Agreement, through diplomatic channels, by giving notice of termination at least six months before the end of any calendar year after the expiration of a period of five years from the date of its entry into force. In such event, the Agreement shall cease to have effect:

(a) in Georgia, in respect of taxes chargeable, for any fiscal year beginning on or after 1st January in the calendar year next following that in which the notice is given;

(b) in the United Kingdom:


(i) in respect of income tax and capital gains tax, for any year of assessment beginning on or after 6th April in the calendar year next following that in which the notice is given;

(ii) in respect of corporation tax, for any financial year beginning on or after 1st April in the calendar year next following that in which the notice is given.

IN WITNESS whereof the undersigned, being duly authorised thereto, have signed this Agreement.

DONE in duplicate, at London this 13th day of July 2004, in the English and Georgian languages, both texts being equally authoritative.



For the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland:


Jack Straw


For the Government of Georgia:


S Zurabishvili