Part Article 2 General definitions
For the purposes of this Agreement, unless the context otherwise requires:
the term “area” in respect of the United Kingdom means Great Britain and Northern Ireland, including any area outside the territorial sea of the United Kingdom which in accordance with international law has been or may hereafter be designated, under the laws of the United Kingdom concerning the Continental Shelf, as an area within which the rights of the United Kingdom with respect to the sea bed and sub-soil and their natural resources may be exercised and in respect of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region includes Hong Kong Island, Kowloon and the New Territories;
the term “competent authority” means:
in the case of the United Kingdom, the Commissioners of Inland Revenue or their authorised representative;
in the case of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, the Commissioner of Inland Revenue or his authorised representative or any person or body authorised to perform any functions at present exercisable by the Commissioner, or similar functions;
the term “Contracting Party” means the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland or the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, as the context requires;
the term “enterprise of a Contracting Party” means:
in the case of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland a business carried on by a person who, under the law of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, is liable to tax therein by reason of his domicile, residence, place of management, place of incorporation or any other criterion of a similar nature;
in the case of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region a business carried on by a person as an operator of ships and which is managed and controlled in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.
For the purposes of this sub-paragraph, the Government of a Contracting Party shall be deemed to be an individual resident of that Contracting Party, and an enterprise of one Contracting Party shall not at the same time be an enterprise of the other Contracting Party;
the term “international traffic” means any transport by a ship operated by an enterprise of a Contracting Party, except when the ship is operated solely between places in the area of the other Contracting Party;
the term “person” includes an individual, a company and any other body of persons, but does not include a partnership.
As regards the application of this Agreement at any time by a Contracting Party, any term not defined therein shall, unless the context otherwise requires, have the meaning that it has at that time under the laws of that Party for the purposes of the taxes to which this Agreement applies, any meaning under the applicable tax laws of that Party prevailing over a meaning given to the term under other laws of that Party.