On January 14, 2013 the U.S. and Japan signed a Protocol amending the Convention between the Government of the United States of America and the Government of Japan for the Avoidance of Double Taxation and the Prevention of Fiscal Evasion with respect to Taxes on Income and the Protocol, which forms and integral part of the Convention, signed at Washington on November 6, 2003. On October 29, 2015 on the website of the U.S. Department of the Treasury a so-called Technical Explanation of this Protocol was published.

According to the overview “Current Status of Negotiations on Tax Conventions” as available on the website of the Japanese Ministry of Finance, the (2013) Protocol has not yet entered into force. (The overview “Current Status of Negotiations on Tax Conventions” as available on the website of the Japanese Ministry of Finance can be quickly found by clicking on Japan in our section DTAs & TIEAs)

According to the U.S. Department of the Treasury, the Technical Explanation is an official guide to the Protocol and Exchange of Notes. It supposedly explains policies behind particular provisions, as well as understandings reached during the negotiations with respect to the interpretation and application of the Protocol and the Exchange of Notes.

It is also stated that references to the existing Convention are intended to put various provisions of the Protocol into context. The Technical Explanation does not, however, provide a complete comparison between the provisions of the existing Convention and the amendments made by the Protocol and Exchange of Notes. The Technical Explanation is not intended to provide a complete guide to the existing Convention as amended by the Protocol and Exchange of Notes. In the Technical Explanation it is also noted that to the extent that the existing Convention has not been amended by the Protocol and Exchange of Notes, the technical explanation of the existing Convention and the Protocol of 2003 remains the official explanation.

Click here to be forwarded to the Technical Explanation of the Protocol as available on the website of the U.S. Department of the Treasury.

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