Standard refund - eligibility, documentation, deadlines – Bulgarian debt securities
Who can apply for a standard refund?
Standard refund of withholding tax on interests from non-listed Bulgarian corporate bonds, non-listed mortgage bonds, non-listed municipal bonds (collectively “non-listed bonds”) is available through Clearstream1, provided that the final beneficial owner is resident in a country that has signed a DTT with Bulgaria.
Documentation requirements
In order to benefit from a standard refund of withholding tax on interests from Bulgarian non-listed bonds, clients must ensure to provide Clearstream with the following documents within the applicable deadlines. The related templates of the documents are available on our Tax forms to use section.
For all clients applying for standard refund on interests from Bulgarian non-listed bonds:
- Letter of Request to Clearstream for reclaim of Bulgarian Withholding tax in the name of the Clearstream client
- Chain of Credit Advices from each intermediary between Clearstream and the final beneficial owner
- Claim forms, in the name of the final beneficial owner
- Certificate of residence, in the name of the final beneficial owner
- Power of Attorney, only if a third party is completing the claim form on behalf of the beneficial owner
Deadline for receipt of documents
Unless otherwise stipulated in the tax treaty, the statutory deadline for reclaiming withholding tax is five years after the relevant income payment date for which the tax reclaim is made.
The deadline by which Clearstream must receive the documentation for a standard refund application is at the latest two months before the statutory deadline.
All reclaim applications received after this deadline will be processed by Clearstream on a “best efforts” basis. However, in such cases, Clearstream will apply an extra charge and accepts no responsibility for forms that have not reached the Bulgarian Tax Authorities by the date considered to be the statute of limitations deadline.
Receipt of refunded amounts
The estimated time for receiving a refund is on average 2 months from the date on which the standard refund application was received by Clearstream. This timeframe can vary depending on when the application was filed and the complexity of the information supplied in the reclaim form.
Notes on tax reclaims
Clients warrant the completeness and accuracy of the information they supply to Clearstream.
It is the client's responsibility to determine any entitlement to a refund of tax withheld, to calculate the amount due and to correctly complete the required forms in due time. Clearstream is under no obligation to carry out any investigation in respect of such information.
With respect to tax reclaims in general, clients are reminded that Clearstream accepts no responsibility for their acceptance or non-acceptance by the tax authorities of the respective country.
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1. Clearstream refers collectively to Clearstream Banking S.A. and Clearstream Europe AG (for Clearstream Europe AG clients using Creation accounts).