The North West Life Assurance Company of Canada - Page 69

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                  The contemporaneous Technical Explanation of the Treaty                              
            prepared by the Treasury Department and submitted to the Senate                            
            Foreign Relations Committee for its consideration prior to                                 
            ratification is consistent with my interpretation of the Treaty.                           
            The Technical Explanation states in pertinent part:                                        

                        Paragraph 7 provides a definition for the term                                 
                  "attributable to."  Profits "attributable to" a                                      
                  permanent establishment are those derived from the                                   
                  assets or activities of the permanent establishment.                                 
                  Paragraph 7 does not preclude Canada or the United                                   
                  States from using appropriate domestic tax law rules of                              
                  attribution.  * * *  [U.S. Dept. of the Treasury,                                    
                  Technical Explanation of Convention With Respect to                                  
                  Taxes on Income and on Capital, Sept. 26, 1980, U.S.-                                
                  Can., as amended, at 13 (Apr. 26, 1995) (emphasis                                    
                  added.)2]                                                                            

                  Provisions substantially similar to section 842(b) were                              
            already in the Code at the time the Canadian Treaty was signed                             
            and ratified.                                                                              
                  Under the regime of section 813, which was in effect in 1984                         
            when the Treaty was ratified and became effective, a foreign life                          
            insurance company's income that was effectively connected with                             

            2The majority narrowly reads the Technical Explanation's use                               
            of domestic tax law rules of attribution as being limited to                               
            paragraph 7 of article VII of the Treaty.  See majority op. p.                             
            36.  However, paragraph 7 of article VII of the Treaty itself                              
            applies to the entire Convention:                                                          

                  7.  For the purposes of the Convention, the business                                 
                  profits attributable to a permanent establishment shall                              
                  include only those profits derived from the assets or                                
                  activities of the permanent establishment.  [Emphasis                                
                  added.]                                                                              



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