The Netherlands: Late interest applicable to dividend reclaims pending with the DTA
Effective
1 January 2015
due to changes to the Dutch General Law on Federal Taxes (Algemene Wet inzake Rijksbelastingen (AWR), articles 30h and 30ha), the Dutch Tax Authorities (DTA) are obliged as of 1 January 2015, with retroactive effect, to pay interest in the event of pending reclaims of withholding tax, under certain circumstances.
The late interest will be paid in respect to tax reclaims that have been introduced to the DTA and for which no decision has been taken after a period of eight weeks from the date of receipt of the application by the DTA. The interest will be paid only if the reclaim is granted to the beneficial owner. The eight-week term is suspended in the event of the tax inspector requiring to wait for answers to questions submitted to third parties, and will restart from the date of receipt of the answers.
The interest rate to be applied is the legal interest for non-commercial transactions, which in all cases will be at least 4%. It will be calculated singularly based on the amount of the refund that has been granted and for a period starting eight weeks after receipt of the application until fourteen calendar days after the official date of the decision.
Note: No late interest will be applicable in the period of the year of the dividend payment itself and including the first three months of the following year, even if the decision was not taken within a period of eight weeks.
Impact on customers
No action is required to obtain the payment of interest. The DTA will automatically pay the late interest when the eight-week period has elapsed. The interest will be granted retroactively, as per the above mentioned rules, to the refunds that were still pending as of 1 January 2015, even if the refund was requested in 2014.
Further Information
For further information, customers may contact the Clearstream Banking Tax Help Desk or Clearstream Banking Client Services 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 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.