Belgium: Additional information required for treatment of reclaims exceeding EUR 100,000

In 2014, the Belgian Tax Authorities (BTA) began requesting additional information and supporting documentation for any withholding tax refund exceeding EUR 200,000. Effective

immediately

this threshold has been reduced to EUR 100,000.

Impact on customers

In order to have a reclaim for withholding tax of more than EUR 100,000 accepted, customers must justify the request by providing the following additional documentation together with the usual reclaim documentation:

• A copy of the Credit Advice from the previous dividend payment, if received by the same beneficial owner.
• A Statement of Transactions, which is available from our Tax Forms to use – Belgium page, containing the details of all the transactions (purchase, sale, lending, etc.) between the previous dividend payment date and the dividend payment date stated on the reclaim form.
  This statement must mention the following trade details: security name, ISIN, quantity of shares, trade date, settlement date, transaction type (purchase/sale) and the counterparties of the trade.
  This is only required if there were transactions between the previous dividend payment and the dividend payment date for which the reclaim is submitted.

Important: Both the Credit Advice and the Statement of Transactions  must be certified by the customer with two authorised signatures.

Reclaims already submitted to the BTA

The BTA may request the additional documentation mentioned above for pending reclaims that were previously submitted to the BTA and for which the refund amount exceeds EUR 100,000.

For further information on Belgian tax reclaims please refer to Market Taxation Guide - Belgium.

Further information

For further information, please contact the Clearstream Banking¹ Tax Help Desk, Clearstream Banking Client Services or your Relationship Officer.

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1. Clearstream Banking refers collectively to Clearstream Banking S.A., registered office at 42, avenue John F. Kennedy, L-1855 Luxembourg, and registered with the Luxembourg Trade and Companies Register under number B-9248, and Clearstream Banking AG (for Clearstream Banking Frankfurt (CBF) customers using CreationOnline), registered office at 61, Mergenthalerallee, 65760 Eschborn, Germany and registered in Register B of the Amtsgericht Frankfurt am Main, Germany under number HRB 7500.