EU FASTER Update
As mentioned in last year in our Q3 newsletter, the EU’s Faster and Safer Tax Excess Relief (FASTER) Directive aims to harmonise double taxation treaty (DTT) relief practices on cross-border withholding tax in the EU and implement adequate tools to help prevent and fight tax avoidance and fraud across Member States. In this edition of our newsletter, we would like to focus on the substantial changes introduced by the EU Council to the initial proposed text.
On 14 May, the Council reached a general approach on the Directive’s proposal, postponing the mandatory transposition into national legislation to 31 December 2028 and the effective date to 1 January 2030, three years later than initially planned.
Other key changes introduced by the Council’s text relate to the scope of application of the new rules, the digital tax residence certificate (eTRC) and the responsibilities of EU Certified Financial Intermediaries (CFI):
Changes to the initial scope of application
Further flexibility is introduced to restrict the use of fast-track procedures: relief at source or quick refund. Member states will be able to exclude, completely or partially, fast-track relief requests, to perform further checks.
Member states with a comprehensive relief at source system and a market capitalization below 1.5%, are now out of the scope of the obligations to adopt a fast-track procedure. Similarly, these qualifying Member States will not need to apply the provisions related to Chapter III with regards to national registration of CFIs and reporting obligations.
The quick refund period is extended from 50 (in the initial proposal) to 60 calendar days.
Albeit, not a deviation from initial text, it is worth highlighting that the obligation to apply a fast-track mechanisms exclusively applies to dividends paid for publicly traded shares. Member States may, at their discretion, decide to extend the application to bonds and interest payments.
Changes to the eTRC:
The maximum issuance period is extended from (initially proposed) one day, to 14 calendar days.
The eTRC’s maximum validity period is set to the calendar year, contrasting with the initial proposal where the calendar year was the minimum validity period.
There will be a requirement to reference the applicable DTT.
Certified Financial Intermediaries: Registration, reporting and liability
CFIs will need to report directly to the tax authority of the source Member State. As a part of this obligation, CFIs will be required to adopt procedures to enable end-to-end tracing and identification of intermediaries and income flow, from the issuer to the registered owner. CFIs will need to provide the information along the securities payment chain in sequential order in respect of the position held.
A CFI that is not part of a payment chain will be able to step into the role of a non-certified FI which is part of the payment chain and fulfil the reporting obligations.
A “European Certified Financial Intermediary Portal” will be implemented as a common e-access point for CFIs.
CFIs will need to obtain a declaration of relief entitlement from the investor when required by the source Member State. However, this declaration will not be mandatory across Member States.
Reporting obligations are introduced for “financial arrangements”, such as those used in dividend arbitrage and dividend stripping schemes, to discourage and fight tax abuse or fraud. Bonds and interest payments are exempted from such reporting.
Rules are established on the liability of the financial intermediary in case of undue refund for relief at source and quick refund (does not set rules for the standard process).
Outsourcing of the CFI’s tasks required to fulfil the obligations under the Directive to a third party will be allowed.
Given the significance of the changes, the European Parliament will need to be consulted again before formal adoption.
The Acupay team remains supportive of the EU FASTER Directive and looks forward to the positive changes it will bring to tax relief processing. We continue to plan development of a comprehensive set of solutions that will support and enable stakeholders to be prepared for and leverage the new opportunities it creates.
Contact the Product Management and Client Engagement Team at product@acupay.com to learn more.