United States-Canada Convention on Taxes Message to the Senate Transmitting the Convention.

To the Senate of the United States:

I transmit herewith, for Senate advice and consent to ratification, a Convention between the United States of America and Canada with respect to Taxes on Income and Capital (the Convention), signed at Washington on September 26, 1980, and a related exchange of notes for the information of the Senate. I also transmit the report of the Department of State with respect to the Convention.

The Convention will replace the existing tax convention with Canada, signed in 1942, as amended by supplementary conventions signed in 1950, 1956 and 1966. It is based, in general, on the United States and OECD model conventions but deviates from the models in a number of important respects in order to take account of particular features of Canadian law and its interaction with United States law, the unique economic relationship between the United States and Canada, and the provisions of the existing convention.

As in the existing convention, the new Convention provides that the business profits of a resident of one Contracting State will not be subject to tax by the other State except to the extent that they are attributable to a permanent establishment which the resident has in the other State. The definition of a permanent establishment in the Convention is more comprehensive than that in the existing convention and is very similar to the definition in the United States model.

The Convention establishes maximum reciprocal rates of withholding at source for dividends, interest, and royalties. Although the rates exceed those in the United States model for several types of income, there are a number of significant reductions in withholding rates in comparison with the existing convention.

I recommend that the Senate give early and favorable consideration to the Convention and give advice and consent to its ratification.

JIMMY CARTER

The White House,

November 12; 1980.