Foreign source income of companies

(1) In the case of a company, a credit against tax is allowed for any income or withholding tax paid to a foreign country in respect of a receipt described in sub-section (2), but not in excess of the amount of business tax payable on such receipt. (2) The following receipts are eligible for the foreign tax credit under this section– (a) dividends, other than those paid by a company; (b) interest, other than interest paid by a resident person or relating to a domestic permanent establishment; (c) natural resource payments made in respect of or calculated by reference to natural resources taken from land or the sea situated outside Belize or its territorial waters; (d) rent paid for the use of, right to use, or forbearance from using an asset situated outside Belize; (e) royalties paid for the use of, right to use, or forbearance from using an asset outside 85 (f) premiums for general insurance in respect of the insurance of any risk outside Belize; (g) a payment received by a person who conducts a business of land, sea or air transport operator or charterer in respect of– (i) the carriage of passengers who embark, or cargo, mail, or other moveable tangible assets that are embarked, outside Belize; or (ii) rental of containers and related equipment which are supplementary or incidental to carriage referred to in sub- paragraph (i); (h) payments received by a person who conducts a business of transmitting messages by cable, radio, optical fibre, or satellite or electronic communication in respect of the transmission of messages by apparatus established outside (i) payments attributable to a business conducted outside having a permanent establishment located in a foreign country; (j) a gain from the realization of– (i) real estate located outside Belize; (ii) any asset of a permanent establishment outside Belize; or (iii) any debt, equity, or other financial instrument issued by a person other than a resident person. 86 (3) For purposes of this Part– (a) “resident person” means– (i) an individual domiciled in Belize, or who spends more than 183 days of the year of assessment in Belize; (ii) a company; (iii) a trust with a resident trustee; or (iv) a body of persons formed under the laws of Belize; and (b) “permanent establishment” means a fixed place of business through which the business of a person is wholly or partly carried on, and includes– (i) a place of management; (ii) a branch; (iii) an office; (iv) a factory; (v) a workshop; (vi) a mine, an oil or gas well, a quarry or any other place of extraction of natural resources; (vii) a building site, a construction, assembly or installation project or supervisory activities in connection therewith, if such site, project or activities last more than six months; 87 (viii) the furnishing of services, including consultancy services, by an enterprise through employees or other personnel engaged by the enterprise for such purpose, if activities of that nature continue within the foreign country concerned for a period or periods aggregating more than 183 days in any 12-month period commencing or ending in the fiscal year concerned. (4) Where a person is acting in a country on behalf of an enterprise and, in doing so, habitually concludes contracts, or habitually plays the principal role leading to the conclusion of contracts that are routinely concluded without material modification by the enterprise, and these contracts are– (a) in the name of the enterprise; or (b) for the transfer of the ownership of, or for the granting of the right to use, property owned by that enterprise or that the enterprise has the right to use; or (c) for the provision of services by that enterprise, that enterprise shall be deemed to have a permanent establishment in that country in respect of any activities which that person undertakes for the enterprise.