Belgium: New form 276 Div.-Aut and Explanatory note
Effective
immediately
the Belgian tax authorities have released a new version of the reclaim form 276 Div.-Aut and its related explanatory note, named respectively N°/NR. 276 Div.-Aut. -2014 and EXPLANATORY NOTE 276 Div. (Not.) (A) – 2014.
Impact on customers
The main change concerns the statute of limitation as described in the explanatory note.
In the former version, the statute of limitation was five years starting from 1 January of the year following the dividend payment date.
In EXPLANATORY NOTE 276 Div. (Not.) (A) – 2014. point 3. a) it is recommended to send the reclaim form as soon as possible and in any case before the expiry of a period of five years from 1 January of the year in which the withholding tax was paid.
As an example, for dividends paid in 2011 the deadline to fill a reclaim with the Belgian Tax Authorities is 31 December 2015.
Important note: The deadline by which Clearstream Banking1 must receive the documentation for an application is, at the latest, two months before the relevant statutory deadline.
All refund applications received after this deadline will be processed by Clearstream Banking on a “best efforts” basis but, in such cases, Clearstream Banking will apply an extra charge. Clearstream Banking accepts no responsibility for forms that have not reached the Belgian Tax Authorities by the date considered as being the statute of limitations deadline.
Further information
For further information, please contact the Clearstream Banking Tax Help Desk, Clearstream Banking Client Services or your Relationship Officer.
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1. Clearstream Banking refers collectively to 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 and Clearstream Banking S.A., registered office at 42, avenue John F. Kennedy, L-1855 Luxembourg, and registered with the Luxembourg Register of Commerce and Companies under number B-9248.