The term “permanent establishment” (PE) had been defined, for the first time, in the 1963 OECD Model Convention (MC) as relating to a “fixed place of business” (“situs PE”). In the preceding Model Convention of 1928 of the League of Nations the meaning of “permanent establishment” could only be deduced from a set of illustrative examples, one of them being sales agents (who are persons rather than “fixed places”). When the OECD introduced its new concept of a “situs PE” in 1963, it was not intended to deprive member states from taxing sales profits generated by sales agents. Therefore, it was necessary to develop a separate special rule (now: Art 5 para 5 in conjunction with para 6 OECD MC) according to which a person (the dependent sales agent), be it a physical or a moral person, should be deemed to constitute a PE and should thus allow the host country to continue taxing the sales profits generated on its territory. Therefore, the dependent agent PE (DAPE) is not a real PE, but a fictitious one with the sole purpose of retaining the taxing rights that would have accrued to the host country if a real PE had been established there. The DAPE concept is more or less an early “BEPS p...