The OECD-Model-Convention and its Update 2014

I. S. 52Introduction

The treatment of entertainers and sportspersons in international tax law has been subject to ongoing debate at the academic level and has raised a number of practical problems. This stems from the fact that the taxation of international entertainers and sportspersons appears to be a small but very special topic in international taxation. Article 17 of the OECD Model Convention (OECD Model) generally enables the state of performance to tax the income of a non-resident entertainer or sportsperson from his or her activities as such performed in that country, regardless of whether they are of business or employment nature. Thus, persons deriving their income as an entertainer or sportsperson are taxed in an exceptional way compared to other taxpayers deriving income from articles 7 (business profits) and 15 (income from employment), where income is taxable in the source state only under certain conditions.. This is why it is of paramount importance to clearly define the personal and substantive scope of article 17 of the OECD Model in order to distinguish this provision from the other distributive rules in the OECD Model.

As a result of the variety of different practical ...