Proclamation Giving Notice that the Protocol Amending the Convention between the Government of Canada and the Swiss Federal Council for the Avoidance of Double Taxation with respect to Taxes on Income and on Capital, Came into Force on December 16, 2011 — 1
An Interpretative Protocol shall be added to the Convention with the following provisions: “Interpretative Protocol The Government of Canada and the Swiss Federal Council Have agreed at the signing of the Protocol amending the Convention between the Government of Canada and the Swiss Federal Council for the Avoidance of Double Taxation with respect to Taxes on Income and on Capital , done at Berne on 5 May 1997 (the “Convention”), on the following provisions, which shall form an integral part of the Convention: 1 Regarding Article 11: Subparagraph 3(c) shall not apply where all or any portion of the interest paid or payable on an obligation that is contingent or dependent on the use of or production from property is computed by reference to revenue, profit, cash flow, commodity price or any other similar criterion or by reference to dividends paid or payable to shareholders of any class of shares of the capital stock of a corporation. 2 Regarding Article 25: (a) It is understood that an exchange of information will only be requested once the requesting Contracting State has pursued all reasonable means available under its internal taxation procedure to obtain the information. (b) It is understood that the competent authority of the requesting State shall provide the following information to the competent authority of the requested State when making a request for information under Article 25 of the Convention: (i) name and, to the extent known, other information, such as address, account number or date of birth, in order to identify the person(s) under examination or investigation; (ii) the period of time for which the information is requested; (iii) a statement of the information sought including its nature and the form in which the requesting State wishes to receive the information from the requested State; (iv) the tax purpose for which the information is sought; (v) the name and, to the extent known, the address of any person believed to be in possession of the requested information. (c) It is understood that the standard of “foreseeable relevance” is intended to provide for exchange of information in tax matters to the widest possible extent and, at the same time, to clarify that Contracting States are not at liberty to engage in “fishing expeditions” or to request information that is unlikely to be relevant to the tax affairs of a given taxpayer. While subparagraph 2(b) contains important procedural requirements that are intended to ensure that fishing expeditions do not occur, clauses (i) through (v) of subparagraph 2(b) nevertheless are to be interpreted in order not to frustrate effective exchange of information. (d) Although Article 25 of the Convention does not restrict the possible methods for exchanging information, it shall not commit the Contracting States to exchange information on an automatic or a spontaneous basis. (e) It is understood that in the case of an exchange of information, the administrative procedural rules regarding taxpayers’ rights provided for in the requested Contracting State remain applicable before the information is exchanged with the requesting Contracting State. It is further understood that this provision intends to provide the taxpayer a fair procedure and not to prevent or unduly delay the exchange of information process.”