In some Austrian tax treaties, Art. 19 of the OECD Model Tax Convention (OECD MC) is still drafted according to the OECD MC of 1963, where specific reference is made in para. 1 to the necessity of a “discharge of functions of a governmental nature”. This reference was deleted in the OECD MC of 1977 as redundant, because the non-governmental business activities are already excluded by the respective clause of para. 3. The Austrian courts have developed an understanding according to which Art. 19 of a tax treaty, if drafted in the 1963 version, is only applicable to government employees whose governmental functions require the exercise of law enforcement authority. However, such a restrictive interpretation was not intended by the contracting states when the respective Austrian treaties had been concluded, because it was understood that states and their political subdivisions carry out their governmental functions through the entirety of their personnel regardless of whether the particular work-profile of an individual employee provides for the exercise of governmental authority or is of a mere auxiliary nature, as in the case of a civil servant of a data processing unit or even in t...