Where dividends paid by a resident corporation to a resident personal discretionary trust are deemed pursuant to s. 104(19) to be received by a beneficiary that is resident, but not domiciled, in Barbados (“NR-Beneficiary”), would those dividends be subject to a reduced rate of withholding at 15% pursuant to Arts. XXIII(3) and XXX(5) of the Canada-Barbados Treaty?
After noting that NR-Beneficiary was subject to taxation under the Barbados Income Tax Act, 1968 on its “income from sources outside Barbados … only to the extent a benefit is obtained in Barbados from that income in the form, among others, of a remittance of money or an importation of property,” i.e., on a “remittance basis,” CRA indicated that NR-Beneficiary qualified as a resident of Barbados, i.e., as “a person must be subject to the most comprehensive form of taxation as exists in the relevant contracting state”:
That is because, even if, under the law in force in Barbados, the taxation of the Trust Income may be deferred until a benefit is obtained in the form of a remittance of money or an importation of property in Barbados, it is our understanding that the NR-Beneficiary remains, nonetheless, “liable to tax” in Barbados in respect of its worldwide income.