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- In this Agreement:
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- a)the term “British Virgin Islands” means the territory of the British Virgin Islands as referred to in the Virgin Islands Constitution Order 2007;
- b)the term “the Netherlands” means the part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands that is situated in Europe, including its territorial sea, and any area beyond the territorial sea within which the Netherlands, in accordance with international law, exercises jurisdiction or sovereign rights with respect to the sea bed, its sub soil and its superjacent waters, and their natural resources;
- c)the term “collective investment fund or scheme” means any pooled investment vehicle, irrespective of legal form;
- d)the term “company” means any body corporate or any entity that is treated as a body corporate for tax purposes;
- e)the term “competent authority” means
- i)in the case of the Netherlands the Minister of Finance or his authorized representative;
- ii)and in the case of the British Virgin Islands, the Financial Secretary or a person or authority designated by him in writing;
- f)the term “Contracting Party” means the Netherlands, or the British Virgin Islands as the context requires;
- g)the term “criminal laws” means all criminal laws designated as such under domestic law irrespective of whether contained in the tax laws, the criminal code or other statutes;
- h)the term “criminal tax matters” means tax matters involving intentional conduct which is liable to prosecution under the criminal laws of the Requesting Party with the inclusion of administrative fines;
- i)the term “information” means any fact, statement, document or record in any form whatever;
- j)the term “information gathering measures” means laws and administrative or judicial procedures that enable a Contracting Party to obtain and provide the information requested;
- k)the term “national” means
- i)in relation to the Netherlands any individual possessing the nationality of the Netherlands and any legal person, partnership or association deriving its status as such from the laws in force in the Netherlands;
- ii)in relation to the British Virgin Islands, any person who belongs to the British Virgin Islands by virtue of the Virgin Islands Constitution Order 2007 (Statutory Instrument 2007 No.1678) or has a certificate of residence of the British Virgin Islands by virtue of the Immigration and Passport Ordinance (Cap.130); and any legal person, partnership, association or other entity deriving its status as such from the laws in force in the British Virgin Islands;
- l)the term “person” includes an individual (“natural person”), a company and any other body or group of persons;
- m)the term “public collective investment fund or scheme” means any collective investment fund or scheme provided the units, shares or other interests in the fund or scheme can be readily purchased, sold or redeemed by the public;
- n)the term “publicly traded company” means any company whose principal class of shares is listed on a recognised stock exchange provided its listed shares can be readily purchased or sold by the public and for the purposes of this definition the term
- i)“principal class of shares” means the class or classes of shares representing a majority of the voting power and value of the company;
- ii)“Shares can be purchased or sold by the public” means the purchase or sale of shares is not implicitly or explicitly restricted to a limited group of investors;
- iii)“recognised stock exchange” means any stock exchange agreed upon by the competent authorities of the Contracting Parties;
- o)the term “Requested Party” means the Contracting Party which is requested to provide or has provided information in response to a request;
- p)the term “Requesting Party” means the Contracting Party submitting a request for or having received information from the Requested Party;
- q)the term “tax” means any tax which is subject of this Agreement.
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- As regards the application of this Agreement at any time by a Contracting Party, any term not defined therein shall, unless the context otherwise requires, have the meaning that it has at that time under the law of that Contracting Party, any meaning under the applicable tax laws of that Party prevailing over a meaning given to the term under other laws of that Contracting Party.
