France: Procedure to request Attestations 2777 or 2779
Further to Announcement A21133, Clearstream Banking1 would like to inform customers that effective
immediately
customers wishing to obtain any proof of payment at the level of the final Beneficial Owner (BO) on securities held through the Creation Platform (2777) or the CASCADE platform (2779) must send their request to the relevant dedicated email address: att2777@clearstream.com or att2779@clearstream.com.
Note: The delivery of an attestation may take more than 25 calendar days from the date that such valid request is received by Clearstream Banking.
Clearstream Banking will process customers’ requests and issue the attestations on a “best efforts” basis only.
It is the customer’s responsibility to provide a valid and complete request in order to enable us to process such requests and deliver the attestation.
We do not guarantee that the relevant competent authorities will grant entitlement to a customer’s tax reclaim.
Clearstream Banking would like to inform customers that it realises the specific importance of this matter at the moment and will do its best to handle customer requests as quickly as possible.
Background
The attestation is issued by the French withholding agent being either Clearstream Banking AG (CBF) or BNP Paribas Securities Services (BPSS) and is considered as a credit advice of the payment from the withholding agent to us at Clearstream Banking providing evidence that tax was withheld at source for a past taxable dividend payment.
Attestation 2777 is issued by BNP Paribas Securities Services (PBSS) in their quality of withholding agent on all non-T2S securities under the Creation platform and securities held through CASCADE and paid before 1 April 2011.
Attestation 2779 is issued by Clearstream Banking AG (CBF) in their quality of withholding agent for securities held through CASCADE as of 1 April 2011 and all T2S securities held through Creation Platform or CASCADE Platform as of 9 April 2018.
We noticed that requests for Attestations 2777 and 2779 were all sent to the same email address (att2777@clearstream.com) as per Announcement A21133. This is not correct and may create delay in the issuance of Attestation 2779 when not requested to the dedicated email address (att2779@clearstream.com).
The below table summarises the type of attestation that can be delivered:
Platform | Type of securities | Date of payment | Type of attestation | Issuing entity |
Creation (CBL) and CASCADE (CBF) | All | Before 1 April 2011 | 2777 | BPSS |
Creation (CBL) | All (including choice dividends and Essentially registered shares – With VD in 2017 and 2018) | Between 1 April 2011 and 9 April 2018 | 2777 | BPSS |
Creation (CBL) | All non-T2S securities | After 9 April 2018 | 2777 | BPSS |
CASCADE (CBF) | All (except choice dividends and Essentially registered shares – With VD in 2017 and 2018) | Between 1 April 2011 and 9 April 2018 | 2779 | CBF |
Creation (CBL) and CASCADE (CBF) | All T2S securities | After 9 April 2018 | 2779 | CBF |
Impact on customers
For issuance of Attestation 2777 by BPSS to CBL please refer to Announcement A21133.
For issuance of Attestation 2779 by CBF to CBL, or to direct CBF’s customers, please refer to the below procedure:
For requests for proof of tax applied on a past payment, the attestation will be issued by CBF (as tax agent) to CBL or to its direct customer upon request from the customer.
The attestation does not replace the full chain of credit advices and can be considered as proof of tax withheld at the level of the tax agent only: It cannot be considered as a credit advice of payment from Clearstream Banking to the customer. A Clearstream Banking credit advice is to be requested separately, if required.
Depending on how the payment was taxed at source or whether a refund was already requested by a beneficial owner, the attestation will be issued as one of the following types:
Attestations with several payments listed in the same Attestation 2779:
- Global Standard Attestation 2779 issued per dividend year, per CBL or per customer securities account;
This attestation is issued by CBF reflecting the global position of CBL or of the CBF’s customer that was taxed at payment date at the maximum tax rate. - Global Simplified Attestation 2779 issued per dividend year, per CBL or per customer securities account;
This attestation reflects the global position of CBL or of CBF’s customer that was taxed at payment date at a reduced tax rate (15%/other applicable rate) due to the relief at source procedure as described in the Market Taxation Guide - France. - Standard Attestation 2779 issued per CBL or per customer securities account, per dividend year, per beneficial owner;
This attestation mentions the beneficial owner and reflects the specific position of the specified beneficial owner that was taxed at the maximum tax rate for the specified payment date. This attestation is only available if a standard refund was processed and paid for the specified beneficial owner via CBF as described in the Market Taxation Guide - France. - Simplified Attestation 2779 issued per CBL or per customer securities account, per dividend year, per beneficial owner;
This attestation mentions the beneficial owner and reflects the specific position of the specified beneficial owner that was taxed at a reduced tax rate (15% or any other applicable rate) via the relief at source procedure for the specified payment date as described in the Market Taxation Guide - France.
Attestations with one single payment listed in the Clearstream Banking credit advice “Attestation de Paiement”:
- Global Standard “Attestation de Paiement”, per customer securities account;
The “Attestation de Paiement” reflects the global position of CBF’s customer for one specific payment that was taxed at the maximum tax rate for the specified payment date. - Global Simplified “Attestation de Paiement”, per CBL or CBF customer securities account;
The “Attestation de Paiement” reflects the global position of CBL or CBF’s customer for one specific payment that was taxed at a reduced tax rate via the relief at source (15% or any other DTT rate) for the specified payment date.
Important note: CBF can issue an attestation in the name of the beneficial owner only if a relief at source or standard refund was requested and processed via CBF for that final beneficial owner. In these situations, CBF will have sufficient documentation to verify the payment details for the specified beneficial owner; for the other situations, CBF can only issue “Global Attestations”.
Requesting the attestation via Clearstream Banking
The relevant attestation can be obtained in the following steps:
- The customer selects and completes the relevant “Request for Attestation” (attached below) and submits it to Clearstream Banking via the following dedicated email address: att2779@clearstream.com
- Upon receipt and after verification of the submitted details, we will issue the relevant type of 2779 Attestation and deliver it in original to our customers by registered post. Invalid requests will be rejected and returned for correction to the customer via MT568.
Checks to be performed by the customer before submitting the attestation request to Clearstream Banking:
- All customer requests must specify clearly, in addition to the required details, the type of attestation being requested.
- Each request may only contain payments related to the same payment year.
- CASCADE accounts and Creation accounts may not be listed together in the same request.
Important note: The attestation does not replace the full chain of credit advices and can be considered as proof of tax withheld at the level of the tax agent only. It cannot be considered as a credit advice of payment from Clearstream Banking to the customer. A Clearstream Banking credit advice, if required, must be requested separately.
Further information
For further information, customers may contact Clearstream Banking Tax Help Desk, Clearstream Banking Client Services or their 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, registered office at 61, Mergenthalerallee, 65760 Eschborn, Germany and registered in Register B of the Amtsgericht Frankfurt am Main, Germany under number HRB 7500.