2026-05-06
IRS Treaty Table 3 lists the countries which have income tax treaties with the U.S. Table 3 shows the general effective date for treaty and for certain protocols to the treaties.
Table 3 does not list all protocols to the treaties. For example, the first two Canadian protocols are not shown in Table 3. Similarly, the protocols for Barbados, Chile, China, Denmark Germany, Greece, etc. are also not shown. In fact, more than 30 protocols to treaties are not included on Table 3.
Protocols are often negotiated and signed before the treaty is ratified. These protocols end up having the same effective date as the treaty itself. Since these protocols have the same effective date, there is no need to show them separately on Table 3. Thus, Table 3 only includes protocols to treaties that have a different effective date than the treaty itself.
That is, except for the protocol to the Portugal treaty. Table 3 includes the Portugal protocol. The Portugal treaty has an effective date of January 1, 1996, and the protocol to the Portugal treaty also has an effective date of January 1, 1996. If my theory is correct that Table 3 should only include protocols with a different effective date than the treaty itself, then it is improper for the IRS to include the Portugal protocol on Table 3.
Separately, yesterday the IRS updated the India treaty to the signed version. It is good to see that the IRS treaty documents continue to be improved. There are still inaccuracies in the existing treaties on the IRS website. For example, Article 6 of the Ireland treaty has a title of “Income from Removable (Real Property),” when it presumably should be “Income from Immovable Property (Real Property).”