1. Introduction

In a recent article, we analyzed the Danish Tax Board’ Sales Representative Ruling, wherein the Danish Tax Board concluded that a German company had a fixed place permanent establishment at its employee’s home in Denmark. But in the author’s view, for the reasons discussed in that article, it is difficult to reconcile with that ruling due to, inter alia, non-satisfaction of the ‘disposal test’.

In this two-part article, we would take a closer look at the concept of ‘disposal test’ and the relevant judicial developments. There are numerous court decisions, from several jurisdictions, on the issue of the disposal test. (For an elaborate discussion, see the online commentary). In this two-part article, we would mainly focus on the precedents from Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Germany and India that could help us answer a very important question having far-reaching implications: could an enterprise have a fixed place permanent establishment in another enterprise’s place of business?