- 1
- The Contracting States agree to lend each other assistance and support with a view to the collection, in accordance with their respective laws or administrative practice, of the taxes to which this Convention shall apply and of any administrative penalties, interests and costs pertaining to the said taxes.
- 2
- At the request of the applicant Contracting State the requested Contracting State shall recover tax claims of the first-mentioned State in accordance with the law and administrative practice for the recovery of its own tax claims. However, such claims do not enjoy any priority in the requested State and cannot be recovered by imprisonment for debt of the debtor. The requested State is not obliged to take any executory measures which are not provided for in the laws of the applicant State.
- 3
- The provisions of paragraph 2 shall apply only to tax claims which form the subject of an instrument permitting their enforcement in the applicant State and, unless otherwise agreed between the competent authorities, which are not contested.
However, where the claim relates to a liability to tax of a person as a non-resident of the applicant State, paragraph 2 shall only apply, unless otherwise agreed between the competent authorities, where the claim may no longer be contested.
- 4
- The requested State shall not be obliged to accede to the request:
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- a)if the applicant State has not pursued all means available in its own territory, except where recourse to such means would give rise to disproportionate difficulty;
- b)if and insofar as it considers the tax claim to be contrary to the provisions of this Convention or of any other agreement to which both of the States are parties.
- 5
- The instrument permitting enforcement in the applicant State shall, where appropriate and in accordance with the provisions in force in the requested State, be accepted, recognised, supplemented or replaced as soon as possible after the date of the receipt of the request for assistance by an instrument permitting enforcement in the requested State.
- 6
- At the request of the applicant State, the requested State shall, with a view to the recovery of an amount of tax, take measures of conservancy even if the claim is contested or is not yet the subject of an instrument permitting enforcement, in so far as such is permitted by the laws and administrative practice of the requested State.
- 7
- Questions concerning any period beyond which a tax claim cannot be enforced shall be governed by the law of the applicant State. The request for assistance in the recovery shall give particulars concerning that period.
- 8
- Acts of recovery carried out by the requested State in pursuance of a request for assistance, which, according to the laws of that State, would have the effect of suspending or interrupting the period mentioned in paragraph 7, shall also have this effect under the laws of the applicant State. The requested State shall inform the applicant State about such acts.
- 9
- The requested State may allow deferral of payment or payment by instalments, if its laws or administrative practice permit it to do so in similar circumstances; but it shall first inform the applicant State.
- 10
- The competent authorities of the Contracting States shall by common agreement prescribe rules concerning minimum amounts of tax claims subject to a request for assistance.
- 11
- The Contracting State in which tax is recovered in accordance with the provisions of this Article shall forthwith remit to the Contracting State on behalf of which the tax was collected the amount so recovered minus, where appropriate, the amount of the extraordinary costs referred to in sub-paragraph b) of paragraph 12.
- 12
- It is understood that, unless otherwise agreed by the competent authorities of both Contracting States,
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- a)ordinary costs incurred by a Contracting State in providing assistance shall be borne by that State,
- b)extraordinary costs incurred by a Contracting State in providing assistance shall be borne by the other State and shall be payable regardless of the amount collected on its behalf by the first-mentioned State. As soon as a Contracting State anticipates that extraordinary costs may be incurred, it shall so advise the other Contracting State and indicate the estimated amount of such costs.
- 13
- The applicant State shall in any event remain responsible towards the requested State for the pecuniary consequences of acts of recovery which have been found unjustified in respect of the reality of the tax claim concerned or of the validity of the instrument permitting enforcement in the applicant State.
- 14
- The competent authorities of the States shall by common agreement prescribe rules concerning the application of this Article.
