Taxation of Artistes and Sportsmen in International Tax Law

S. 327Special Issues Due to the Way of Financing Artistes and Sportsmen

Lorenz Pracht

S. 329I. Introduction

In addition to the “normal” taxation of artistes and sportsmen according to Art. 17 Para. 1 and 2 OECD Model Convention (henceforth OECD MC) that has already been described in other parts of this book, this article deals with special ways of financing artistes and sportsmen and the resulting tax consequences.

Quite often small groups of (amateur) artistes and sportsmen are organized as non-profit organizations (henceforth NPO) and use this economic/legal form to carry on their activities. As a consequence of growing mobility, questions arise not only regarding the domestic treatment of such organizations but also regarding their treatment in bilateral situations. Tax exemptions are available in many countries, but as the scope of these exemptions varies from country to country, problems may arise if the organization acts abroad.

First, the problems of artistes-and-sportsmen NPOs that are in the situation that no special artistes-and-sportsmen NPO-provision is provided for in the treaty will be elaborated on. Here, quest...