- 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 increases, surcharges, overdue payments, interests and costs pertaining to the said taxes.
- 2
- At the request of the applicant State the requested 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 obligation to provide assistance in the recovery of tax claims concerning a deceased person or his estate is limited to the value of the estate or the property acquired by each beneficiary of the estate, according to whether the claim is to be recovered from the estate or from the beneficiaries thereof.
- 5
- 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 convention to which both of the Contracting States are parties.
- 6
- The request for administrative assistance in the recovery of a tax claim shall be accompanied by:
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- a)a declaration that the tax claim concerns a tax covered by the Convention and that the conditions of paragraph (3) are met.
- b)an official copy of the instrument permitting enforcement in the applicant State;
- c)any other document required for recovery;
- d)where appropriate, a certified copy confirming any related decision emanating from an administrative body or a public court.
- 7
- The applicant State shall indicate the amounts of the tax claim to be recovered in both the currency of the applicant State and the currency of the requested State. The rate of exchange to be used for the purpose of the preceding sentence is the last selling price settled on the most representative exchange market or markets of the applicant State. Each amount recovered by the requested State shall be transferred to the applicant State in the currency of the requested State. The transfer shall be carried out within a period of a month from the date of the recovery.
- 8
- 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.
- 9
- 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.
- 10
- 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.
- 11
- 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 (10), shall also have this effect under the laws of the applicant State. The requested State shall inform the applicant State about such acts.
- 12
- The requested State may allow deferral of payment or payment by installments, if its laws or administrative practice permit it to do so in similar circumstances; but it shall first inform the applicant State.
- 13
- 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.
- 14
- The Contracting States shall reciprocally waive any restitution of costs resulting from the respective assistance and support which they lend each other in applying this Convention. 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.
