FOR YOUR REVIEW: Draft Submission to European Commission on Improving Withholding Tax Procedures

[34184]

June 17, 2022

TO: Global Tax Committee
Tax Committee RE: FOR YOUR REVIEW: Draft Submission to European Commission on Improving Withholding Tax Procedures

 

Attached for your review is a draft submission to the European Commission that responds to a public consultation regarding an initiative to develop an EU-wide withholding tax regime.[1] The initiative's objective is to facilitate cross-border investment and to prevent tax abuse. The Institute commented last October on an earlier phase of this initiative.[2] 

The draft submission urges:

• a comprehensive solution that addresses fully governments' concerns about tax abuse while ensuring that investors receive treaty-provided withholding tax rate reductions;
• incremental improvements, while a comprehensive solution is developed, that harmonize investor self-certifications, treaty claim forms, and information reporting schemas;
• reliance on electronic, rather than paper, records and delivery mechanisms;
• at-source withholding tax relief, with quick refund procedures available in the (preferably limited) situations in which at-source relief cannot be provided; and
• guidance clarifying and confirming the treaty eligibility of CIVs and their investors.

Please provide all comments on the draft submission to the un-designed (lawson@ici.org) or to Katie Sunderland (katie.sunderland@ici.org) by Thursday, June 23.

 

Keith Lawson
Deputy General Counsel - Tax Law

 

endnotes

[1] See ICI Memorandum No. 34182, dated June 15, 2022.

[2] See ICI Memorandum No. 33862, dated October 26, 2021.