Sweden: UK individuals no longer eligible for treaty benefits via the relief at source or quick refund procedure on Swedish dividend distributions
Clearstream Banking1 informs customers that effective
immediately
and following clarification received from the Swedish Tax Agency (STA), UK tax resident individual beneficial owners are no longer eligible to request a reduced tax rate via the Clearstream Banking relief at source or quick refund procedures.
This is due to Article 28 of the Double Taxation Treaty between Sweden and the UK which stipulates that an individual who is a resident of the UK but whose income or capital gain is not taxed to the full amount in the UK, can only receive treaty relief on that part of the income or capital gain that is taxed in the UK.
The position of the STA is that a Swedish sub-custodian cannot determine whether the dividend will be remitted to the UK by the individual, and consequently whether the dividend will be taxed to the full amount in the UK.
Impact on customers
The maximum withholding tax rate of 30% must consequently be withheld at source, on such dividend payments, when paid to beneficial owners that are UK individuals.
Customers wishing to continue to request a reduced tax rate on Swedish dividends via Clearstream Banking for the impacted beneficial owner types may, however, still be eligible to do so via the standard reclaim procedure.
Relief at source and quick refund requests are no longer possible.
Further information
For further information, customers may contact Clearstream Banking Client Services, their Relationship Officer or Tax Help Desk.
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1. Clearstream Banking refers collectively to Clearstream Banking S.A., registered office at 42, avenue John F. Kennedy, L-1855 Luxembourg, and registered with the Luxembourg Trade and Companies Register under number B-9248, and Clearstream Banking AG (for Clearstream Banking AG customers using Creation Accounts), registered office at 61, Mergenthalerallee, 65760 Eschborn, Germany and registered in Register B of the Amtsgericht Frankfurt am Main, Germany under number HRB 7500.