France: Additional guidelines for the Form 5000 use of "Legal Entity" and "Investment Fund" statuses : Revised

08.07.2013

Note: This Announcement supersedes Announcement L13074, dated 28 May 2013, and contains new and corrected information. Updates are shown in highlight.

Effective

immediately

and further to our Announcement L13055, dated 16 April 2013, the French Tax Authorities (FTA) have recently clarified that the “Legal Entity” and “Investment Fund” statuses indicated in the documentation submitted for the application of reduced tax treaty rates are not detailed enough to ensure the benefit of such rate unless additional information is provided.

In order to avoid the rejection of tax documentation by the FTA and further delays in the treatment of the simplified procedure or reclaim forms, customers are strongly recommended to follow the process described below.

In Box II of the Forms 5000 Certificate of Residence and Attestation of Percentage, in the "Occupation" field, customers are requested to indicate the type of beneficial owner (BO) by entering the most appropriate BO type (that is, the text, not the code) from the following list, avoiding the use of "Legal Entity" and "Investment Fund":

CodeBO typeCodeBO typeCodeBO type
01Individual14Insurance Company24Local Authority / Province
02Legal Entity15Provident Company25The State
04Pension Fund16Investment Fund31Mutual Fund Corporation
05RIC / REIT / REMIC17Charity32Mutual Fund Trust a
07Corporation18Foundation33Pooled Fund Trust
08Instit.Invest.19Church35Unit Trust Canada
09OPCVM20University40Foreign Financial Institution
10Mutual Fund21Not For Profit Organisation41Bank and Foreign Financial Institution
11Partnership
12Parent Company CEE22Unit Trust UK57Central Bank
13Tax Exempt Entity23Public Legal entity90International Organisation

a. Only if 100% Canadian resident.

In addition, in Box II of the Forms 5000, the "Surname and first name, or company name" field should contain the legal form of the company (such as GmbH, SA, SPA, LLP etc.) and this must be in line with the BO type specified in the "Occupation" field.

If the BO type cannot be other than "Legal Entity" or "Investment Fund", the following additional information/documentation must be provided:

For Legal Entities:

  • The legal form of the company (such as GmbH, SA, SPA, LLP etc.) specified in Box II of the Form 5000; or
  • If the legal form cannot be determined/provided, a tax attestation issued by the beneficial owner's local tax authorities to certify that the respective entity is taxed on its global revenues.

For Investment Funds:

  • The legal form of the investment fund (such as SICAV, CIV etc.) specified in Box II of the Form 5000; and
  • A tax attestation issued by the beneficial owner's local tax authorities to certify that the respective entity is taxed on its global revenues.

Further information

For further information, customers may contact the Clearstream Banking1 Tax Help Desk on:

LuxembourgFrankfurt
Email:tax@clearstream.comtax@clearstream.com
Telephone:+352-243-32835+49-(0) 69-2 11-1 3821
Fax:+352-243-632835+49-(0) 69-2 11-61 3821

or Clearstream Banking Customer Service or their 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 (CBF) 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 (CBL).

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