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Hugh J. Ault and Brian J. Arnoldpayments led some countries to add specific provisions to their domesticlaws and their tax treaties to allow them to tax payments for technicalservices on a gross basis. 31 A 2011 survey by the InternationalBureau of Fiscal Documentation (IBFD) found that 134 of the 1,586tax treaties concluded between 1997 and 2011 contained a separatearticle dealing with fees for technical services. 32 Several other treatiesextended the provisions of Article 12 dealing with royalties toinclude certain technical services. Under the separate articles, incomefrom technical services is treated like royalties. Source country tax isallowed on a gross basis at a fixed rate but is limited to fees for technicalservices “arising” in the source country, which usually means thatthe services must be performed in the source country. As noted above,typically these separate articles dealing with fees for technical servicesrefer to “managerial, technical or consultancy services” without definingthat expression.The United Nations Committee of Experts has been workingsince 2008 on the provisions of the United Nations Model Conventiondealing with the taxation of income from services. In 2013, theCommittee decided that a new article should be added to the UnitedNations Model Convention allowing source countries to tax fees fortechnical services on a basis similar to the taxation of royalties (that isto say, on a gross basis at a limited rate without any threshold requirement,even if the services are provided outside the source country). Ifa new article with these features is added to the United Nations ModelConvention and developing countries are successful in negotiating theinclusion of it in their tax treaties, such countries will be able to protecttheir domestic tax base from erosion through payments to nonresidentsfor technical services.31In some cases, the definition of royalties is amended to include technicalfees; in other cases, a separate article dealing with technical fees is addedto a tax treaty. See S. B. Law, “Technical Services Fees in Recent Treaties,”(2010) Vol. 64, No.5 Bulletin for International Taxation, 250-52.32See W. Wijnen, J. de Goede and A. Alessi, “The Treatment of Servicesin Tax Treaties,” (2012) Vol. 66, No. 1 Bulletin for International Taxation.42