Spain: Reactivation of tax attestation issuance and standard refund services for payments in 2024
LuxCSD1 informs clients that effective
immediately
tax attestation issuance and standard refund are reactivated for the payments in 2024 that were suspended since February 2025. In addition, following the new requirements from the Spanish tax authorities, there are some changes to the existing procedures as follows.
Impact on clients
Clients can start submitting tax attestations and standard refund requests for the payments in 2024 and must follow the procedures below, which have been updated with the most recent changes:
Tax Attestation Issuance
The issuance of an Attestation can be requested by clients who wish to obtain a standard refund of withholding tax directly with the Spanish Tax Authorities. The Attestation is delivered only if the beneficial owner was taxed on income payment.
The Attestation is issued by LuxCSD’s Spanish tax representative, on behalf of Clearstream Europe AG, based on clients’ requests using the new template. It provides evidence that tax was withheld at source for a past taxable income payment and includes:
- The position held by Clearstream Europe AG on behalf of the beneficial owner;
- The amount of the net dividend/interest credited to Clearstream Europe AG together with the tax withheld at source.
Attestation request
Requests must be sent to the dedicated email address: es_attestations@clearstream.com.
To ensure your Spanish tax attestation requests are processed without delay, clients must complete all fields of the new template available in Tax Forms to Use.
In addition, for Government bonds and public debt securities issued by the State Treasury or Local Offices, clients must also attach to the email request a copy of the Certificate of Residence, UCIT Attestation, or Annex VI — depending on the legal status of the final beneficial owner — ensuring the documentation explicitly covers the payment date of the income event.
Upon receipt and successful verification of these details, the Attestation will be issued, accompanied by the relevant Withholding Tax Certificate from the Spanish issuer or paying agent. Clearstream Europe AG will deliver these documents strictly in PDF format and send them to clients electronically via email.
Attestations will be issued at the earliest expediency; however, processing may take more than 25 calendar days from the date Clearstream Europe AG receives a valid request.
Important note: The Attestation does not replace the full chain of credit advice. It cannot be considered as credit advice of payment from Clearstream to the client. If required, a Clearstream credit advice must be requested separately.
Due to the provisions of the Orden Ministerial EHA/3316/2010 of 17 December 2010 mentioned in the “Statutory deadline for reclaiming withholding tax” section above, Attestation requests must be addressed to Clearstream Europe AG only from 1 February of the year following the year of income payment. Any request received before that date will be rejected.
Standard Refund
In addition to the current procedure, clients are required to provide the following details of beneficial owners when applicable:
Unique identifiers for all beneficial owners and sub-funds:
- Every Beneficial Owner must be mapped to a unique and distinct identifier such as a TIN, NIF, LEI, or any other code (e.g., ISIN or unique internal codification).
- For sub-funds, you cannot use the identifier of the main umbrella fund; each individual sub-fund must be assigned to its own unique code.
- Submissions containing multiple names under a single or shared identifier will not be accepted.
Mandatory LEI for legal entities:
- To comply with Order HAC/623/2026, any legal entity claiming a standard tax refund must provide its Legal Entity Identifier (LEI) regardless of the payment date. This information must be submitted using our updated template in BO Upload section.
For full standard refund details per type of instrument and type of beneficial owners, clients are asked to refer to the Market Taxation Guide – Spain.
Important note: Clearstream Europe AG will not assist further in the process of refund requests directly to the Spanish Tax Authorities and accepts no responsibility for their acceptance or non-acceptance by these Authorities.
Further information
Clients may contact the Tax Help Desk, Client Services or their Relationship Officer.
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1. LuxCSD refers to LuxCSD S.A., registered office at 42, Avenue J.F. Kennedy, L-1855 Luxembourg, registered with the Luxembourg Trade and Companies Register under number B-154.449.