France: Financial Transaction Tax (FTT) : Declaration and transition details
Further to our Announcements A12127, dated 3 July 2012, and A12148, dated 2 August 20121, related to the French law introducing a Financial Transaction Tax (FTT) (the “FTT Law”), we hereby provide further details under the following headings:
- Connectivity setup;
- FTT intended settlement date;
- Important dates;
- 2012 transition calendar;
- Fees.
Connectivity setup
As reminded in our Announcement A12168, dated 12 September, the new service will be available to Clearstream Banking2 customers through CreationOnline and CreationDirect via Internet.
In order to be able to upload declarations to Clearstream Banking and to receive feedback from Euroclear France (EF), Clearstream Banking customers must ensure that their connectivity applications are configured as described below.
CreationOnline
From 29 October 2012, all Organisation Units (OU) that have access to the Tax Business Services will automatically have the new French Financial Tax Services added to their OU. (Please refer to Graphic A in the attached document.)
Business Groups and Business Users will not automatically receive access to the new services; this must be granted by the customer’s internal OU Administrator via OU Permissions under OU Settings in the CreationOnline Navigator, as follows:
| 1. | In the Navigator panel, select User Management-User Groups to display the User Groups page. |
| 2. | From the Action menu, select the Refresh command to list the User Groups. |
| 3. | On the User Groups tab, do one of the following to display a tab for the selected User Group:
|
| 4. | On the User Group tab, use the User Group Permissions subtab to add the permission to “Upload French FTT Declaration”. Please refer to Graphic B in the attached document. |
| 5. | Select Submit to implement your changes to the User Group. |
N.B.: Changes applied to the User Group will be automatically reflected to the underlying Users. The new French Financial Tax Services will be accessible from 4 November 2012.
CreationDirect via Internet
From 4 November 2012, all existing and new CreationDirect filestores that have the cash and/or securities input permission will also have the permission to upload FTT declarations. (Please refer to Graphic C in the attached document.)
Power of Attorney (PoA)
Current PoA agreements with a third party will not include the permission to upload FTT declarations and this permission will be available only for accounts in the OUs that are not in a PoA agreement. Similarly, CreationDirect filestores with access to an account via a PoA will not be able to send FTT declarations for those accounts.
Customers who want to enable the upload of FTT declarations via a FTT dedicated PoA should contact their Relationship Officer to obtain the relevant documents. The FTT dedicated PoA must be signed and returned to Clearstream Banking before 2 November 2012.
FTT intended settlement date
The FTT intended settlement date declaration template has been released by Euroclear France (EF). Paragraph 47 of the Statement of Practice published on 2 August 2012 provides that the liable party is authorised to apply the intended settlement date to determine when the FTT is payable, on condition that it notifies EF and the French Tax Authorities of this option.
EF has accordingly provided a template of the notification letter to be completed by liable parties who want to opt for the intended settlement date process when determining the chargeability of the FTT.
See https://www.euroclear.com/site/publishedFile/2012_NL_014_Tax_update_EN_tcm94-262328.pdf&action=dload
Important dates
We hereby remind customers of the following important dates:
- Monday 22 October 2012: Start of customer testing period. Customers participating to the tests should contact Clearstream Banking Customer Service or Connectivity Support for practical information about the test process.
- Monday 29 October 2012: All OUs with access to the Tax business services will have the new FTT services added to their OU. OU Administrators can start granting access to selected Business Groups and Business Users.
- Sunday 4 November 2012: First day for customers to upload their FTT declarations via CreationOnline and via CreationDirect via Internet (from 08:30 to 17:00 CET).
Note: The CreationOnline and CreationDirect via Internet user documentation will be updated with the technical features related to the new FTT services.
2012 transition calendar
| Month of acquisition a | Declaration deadline (09:00 CET) | Paymentdate |
| August 2012 | 9 November 2012 | 9 November 2012 |
| September 2012 | 9 November 2012 | 9 November 2012 |
| October 2012 | 9 November 2012 | 9 November 2012 |
| November 2012 | 4 December 2012 | 4 December 2012 |
| December 2012 | 4 January 2013 | 4 January 2013 |
a. Month in which the declared transaction was settled.
Fees
The following charges will be applied for the new FTT services:
- A flat fee of EUR 30 per declaration will apply to each valid declaration received in time. For standard transactions (type S), in time declarations are declarations received on or before the 4th calendar day of the payment month, 09:00 CET. If this falls on a EUR Target holiday, it will then be the next business day.
- A penalty fee of EUR 15 will apply to each valid but late declaration.
- A flat fee of EUR 0.50 will apply to each transaction reported in a valid declaration (to cover EF charges. This is subject to amendment according to information yet to be released by EF.
- A flat fee of EUR 0.25 will apply to each transaction reported in a valid declaration (to cover Clearstream Banking development and running costs).
Any late payment fee reported by EF as a result of a late declaration will be charged to the customer as an additional out-of-pocket expense.
Disclaimer
It is the responsibility of the customer to fulfil all applicable requirements that result from the introduction of the FTT Law. In particular, customers must ensure their compliance with any applicable obligation to collect the relevant transaction data requested by the FTT Law as of 1 August 2012 for impacted French securities as well as to proceed with the payment of the tax.
In order to comply with applicable requirements of the FTT Law, customers are strongly recommended to secure the advice and guidance of a professional tax advisor.
This Announcement is provided for information purposes only and does not aim to give any legal or tax advice. Customers are strongly recommends to assess whether and how their business is impacted by the FTT Law.
We makes no guarantees, representations or warranties and accept no responsibility or liability as to the veracity, accuracy or completeness of this document and will under no circumstances be liable for any loss or damage caused by reliance on any opinion, advice or statement made in this document.
Further information
The details herein provided are based on information currently available in the market and is subject to further update. The release of more information may impact the process herein described. We will provide further details as they become available.
For further information, customers may contact their Clearstream Banking Customer Service, the Connectivity Help Desk or their Relationship Officer
1. All our published Announcements related to the French FTT can be found together in the Information Centre on our website.
2. Clearstream Banking refers collectively to Clearstream Banking AG, registered office at 61, Mergenthalerallee, 65760 Eschborn, Germany and registered in the Register B of the Amtsgericht Frankfurt am Main, Germany under number HRB 7500 (CBF) and Clearstream Banking, société anonyme, 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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