ARTICLE 4

Residence

This Article sets forth rules for determining whether a person is a resident of a Contracting State for purposes of the Convention. As a general matter, only residents of the Contracting States may claim the benefits of the Convention. The treaty definition of residence is to be used only for purposes of the Convention. The fact that a person is determined to be a resident of a Contracting State under Article 4 does not necessarily entitle that person to the benefits of the Convention. In addition to being a resident, a person also must qualify for benefits under Article 17 (Limitation on Benefits) in order to receive benefits conferred on residents of a Contracting State.

The determination of residence for treaty purposes looks first to a person's liability to tax as a resident under the respective taxation laws of the Contracting States. As a general matter, a person who, under those laws, is a resident of one Contracting State and not of the other need look no further. For purposes of the Convention, that person is a resident of the State in which he is resident under internal law. If, however, a person is resident in both Contracting States under their respective taxation laws, the Article proceeds, where possible, to use tie-breaker rules to

assign a single State of residence to such a person for purposes of the Convention.

Paragraph 1

The term "resident of a Contracting State" is defined in paragraph 1. Due to differences in the structures of the United States and Venezuelan tax systems, paragraph 1 establishes particular definitions of resident for each country. Subparagraph (a) provides the definition applicable to the United States. It is based generally on the definitions of residence in U.S. law by referring to a resident as a person who, under the laws of the United States, is subject to tax there by reason of his domicile, residence, citizenship, place of management, place of incorporation or any other similar criterion. Thus, residents of the United States include aliens who are considered U.S. residents under Code section 7701(b).

Subparagraph (a) also provides that a U.S. citizen or alien lawfully admitted for permanent residence in the United States (i.e., a "green card" holder) who is not, under subparagraph 1 (b), a resident of Venezuela, will be treated as a resident of the United States for purposes of the Convention, and, thereby entitled to treaty benefits, only if he has a permanent home or habitual abode in the United States. If, however, such an individual is a resident both of the United States and Venezuela under the rules of paragraph 1, whether he is to be treated as a resident of the United States or of Venezuela for purposes of the Convention is determined by the tie-breaker rules of paragraph 4 of the Article, regardless of how close his nexus to the United States may be. Thus, for example, an individual resident of Mexico who is a U.S. citizen by birth, or who is a Mexican citizen and holds a U.S. green card, but who, in either case, has never lived in the United States, would not be entitled to Venezuelan benefits under the Convention. On the other hand, a U.S. citizen employed by a U.S. corporation who is transferred to Mexico for two years but who maintains a permanent home or habitual abode in the United States would be entitled to treaty benefits. However, the fact that a U.S. citizen who does not have close ties to the United States may not be treated as a U.S. resident under the Convention does not alter the application of the saving clause of paragraph 4 of Article 1 (General Scope) to that citizen. For example, a U.S. citizen who pursuant to the "citizen/green card holder" rule is not considered to be a resident of the United States still is taxable on his worldwide income under the generally applicable rules of the Code.

Subparagraph (b) provides the definition of resident applicable to Venezuela and reflects Venezuela’s domestic law definitions of taxable residents. The subparagraph provides that residence for individuals is based on the concept of the “domiciliado.” An individual is considered a domiciliado, and therefore a resident of Venezuela in a given tax year for purposes of the Convention, if he is present in Venezuela for more than 180 days in that tax year or in the preceding year. Subparagraph (b) also provides that any legal person that is created or organized under the laws of Venezuela shall be considered a resident of Venezuela. This provision reflects Venezuela’s domestic law definition of corporate residence, which is analogous to the place-ofincorporation rule used in the United States. Any corporation registered under a commercial registry in Venezuela (i.e., incorporated in Venezuela) is considered a taxable resident for domestic law purposes and, under this subparagraph, for purposes of the Convention. The subparagraph also provides explicit inclusion as residents of those Venezuelan entidades and colectividades that are subject to the taxation applicable to corporations, which is necessary

because those entities are not legal bodies incorporated in Venezuela. Those entidades and colectividades not taxed as corporations are fiscally transparent in Venezuela, and are therefore subject to the provision of paragraph 2 of this Article.

Certain entities that are nominally subject to tax but that in practice rarely pay tax also would generally be treated as residents and therefore accorded treaty benefits. For example, RICs, REITs and REMICs are all residents of the United States for purposes of the treaty. Although the income earned by these entities normally is not subject to U.S. tax in the hands of the entity, they are taxable to the extent that they do not currently distribute their profits, and therefore may be regarded as "liable to tax." They also must satisfy a number of requirements under the Code in order to be entitled to special tax treatment.

The Protocol’s paragraph 3 describes additional entities which are to be considered residents for purposes of the Convention. Protocol paragraph 3 is analogous to subparagraphs 1 (b) and 1 (c) of the U.S. Model’s Article 4. Subparagraph 3 (a) makes clear the generally understood practice of including within the term “resident of a Contracting State” the Government of that state as well as any political subdivisions or local authorities, agencies and other instrumentalities of that State.

Subparagraph 3(b) of the Protocol corresponds to the U.S. Model’s Article 4 paragraph 1(b) and provides that certain tax-exempt entities such as pension funds and charitable organizations will be regarded as residents regardless of whether they are generally liable for income tax in the State where they are established. An entity will be described in this subparagraph if it is generally exempt from tax by reason of the fact that it is organized and operated exclusively to perform a charitable or similar purpose or to provide pension benefits to employees.

The inclusion of this provision is intended to clarify the generally accepted practice of treating an entity that would be liable for tax as a resident under the internal law of a State but for a specific exemption from tax (either complete or partial) as a resident of that State for purposes of paragraph 1. The reference to a general exemption is intended to reflect the fact that under U.S. law, certain organizations that generally are considered to be tax-exempt entities may be subject to certain excise taxes or to income tax on their unrelated business income. Thus, a U.S. pension trust, or an exempt section 501(c) organization (such as a U.S. charity) that is generally exempt from tax under U.S. law is considered a resident of the United States for all purposes of the treaty.

Paragraph 2

Paragraph 2 addresses special issues presented by fiscally transparent entities such as partnerships and certain estates and trusts. This paragraph applies to any resident of a Contracting State who is entitled to income derived through an entity that is treated as fiscally transparent under the laws of either Contracting State. Entities falling under this description in the United States would include partnerships, common investment trusts under section 584 and grantor trusts. This paragraph also applies to U.S. limited liability companies (“LLCs”) that are treated as partnerships for U.S. tax purposes.

Paragraph 2 provides that an item of income derived by such a fiscally transparent entity will be considered to be derived by a resident of a Contracting State if the resident is treated under the taxation laws of the State where he is resident as deriving the item of income. For example, if a corporation resident in Venezuela distributes a dividend to an entity that is treated as fiscally transparent for U.S. tax purposes, the dividend will be considered derived by a resident of the United States only to the extent that the taxation laws of the United States treat one or more U.S. residents (whose status as U.S. residents is determined, for this purpose, under U.S. tax laws) as deriving the dividend income for U.S. tax purposes. In the case of a partnership, the persons who are, under U.S. tax laws, treated as partners of the entity would normally be the persons whom the U.S. tax laws would treat as deriving the dividend income through the partnership. Thus, it also follows that persons whom the United States treats as partners but who are not U.S. residents for U.S. tax purposes may not claim a benefit for the dividend paid to the entity under the Convention. Although these partners are treated as deriving the income for U.S. tax purposes, they are not residents of the United States for purposes of the treaty. If, however, they are treated as residents of a third country under the provisions of an income tax convention which that country has with Venezuela, they may be entitled to claim a benefit under that convention. In contrast, if an entity is organized under U.S. laws and is classified as a corporation for U.S. tax purposes, dividends paid by a corporation resident in Venezuela to the U.S. entity will be considered derived by a resident of the United States since the U.S. corporation is treated under U.S. taxation laws as a resident of the United States and as deriving the income.

These results would obtain even if the entity were viewed differently under the tax laws of Venezuela (e.g., as not fiscally transparent in the first example above where the entity is treated as a partnership for U.S. tax purposes or as fiscally transparent in the second example where the entity is viewed as not fiscally transparent for U.S. tax purposes). These results also follow regardless of where the entity is organized, i.e., in the United States, Venezuela, or in a third country. For example, income from sources in Venezuela received by an entity organized under the laws of Venezuela, which is treated for U.S. tax purposes as a corporation and is owned by a U.S. shareholder who is a U.S. resident for U.S. tax purposes, is not considered derived by the shareholder of that corporation even if, under the tax laws of Venezuela, the entity is treated as fiscally transparent. Rather, for purposes of the treaty, the income is treated as derived by an entity resident in Venezuela. These results also follow regardless of whether the entity is disregarded as a separate entity under the laws of one jurisdiction but not the other, such as a single owner entity that is viewed as a branch for U.S. tax purposes and as a corporation for tax purposes of the other Contracting State.

The taxation laws of a Contracting State may treat an item of income, profit or gain as income, profit or gain of a resident of that State even if, under the taxation laws of that State, the resident is not subject to tax on that particular item of income, profit or gain. For example, U.S.source dividends would be regarded as income or gain of a resident of Venezuela who otherwise derived the income or gain, despite the fact that the resident could be exempt from tax in Venezuela on the dividend because of Venezuela’s territorial system of taxation.

Where income is derived through an entity organized in a third state that has owners

resident in one of the Contracting States, the characterization of the entity in that third state is irrelevant for purposes of determining whether the resident is entitled to treaty benefits with respect to income derived by the entity.

These principles also apply to trusts to the extent that they are fiscally transparent in either Contracting State. For example, if X, a resident of Venezuela, creates a revocable trust and names persons resident in a third country as the beneficiaries of the trust, X would be treated as the beneficial owner of income derived from the United States under the Code's rules. If Venezuela has no rules comparable to those in sections 671 through 679 then it is possible that under that State's law neither X nor the trust would be taxed on the income derived from the United States. In these cases paragraph 2 provides that the trust's income would be regarded as being derived by a resident of Venezuela only to the extent that the laws of Venezuela treat residents of Venezuela as deriving the income for tax purposes.

Paragraph 3

If, under the laws of the two Contracting States, and, thus, under paragraph 1, an individual is deemed to be a resident of both Contracting States, a series of tie-breaker rules are provided in paragraph 3 to determine a single State of residence for that individual. These tests are to be applied in the order in which they are stated. The first test is based on where the individual has a permanent home. If that test is inconclusive because the individual has a permanent home available to him in both States, he will be considered to be a resident of the Contracting State where his personal and economic relations are closest (i.e., the location of his "center of vital interests"). If that test is also inconclusive, or if he does not have a permanent home available to him in either State, he will be treated as a resident of the Contracting State where he maintains an habitual abode. If he has an habitual abode in both States or in neither of them, he will be treated as a resident of the Contracting State of which he is a national. If he is a national of both States or of neither, the matter will be considered by the competent authorities, who will attempt to agree to assign a single State of residence.

Paragraph 4

Dual residents other than individuals (such as companies, trusts or estates) are addressed by paragraph 4. If such a person is, under the rules of paragraph 1, resident in both Contracting States, the competent authorities shall seek to reach a mutual agreement in determining a single State of residence for that person for purposes of the Convention. If the competent authorities are unable to reach such an agreement, the dual-resident person shall not be considered a resident of either Contracting State, and shall therefore not be granted the benefits of the Convention. Since it is only for the purposes of deriving treaty benefits that such dual residents are excluded from the Convention, they may be treated as resident for other purposes. For example, if a dual resident corporation pays a dividend to a resident of Venezuela, the U.S. withholding agent would be permitted to withhold on that dividend at the appropriate treaty rate, since reduced withholding is a benefit enjoyed by the resident of Venezuela receiving the dividend, not by the dual resident. The dual resident corporation that pays the dividend would, for this purpose, be treated as a resident of the United States under the Convention.