Belgium: Foreign companies holding a “qualifying” participation - new eligibility criteria officially published
Further to our Taxflash T16026, dated 15 July 2016, the draft Law amending the eligibility criteria to benefit from the reduced withholding tax rate of 1.6995%, as set out in article 269/1 of the Belgian Income Tax Code has been published in the Belgian Official Journal.
The new Law is effective as of
11 August 2016
Impact on customers
The amended article 269/1 of the Belgian Income Tax Code mentions that Belgian companies are not eligible for the reduced rate and, in order to benefit from the 1.6995% reduced rate, both the foreign company receiving the dividend and the issuing company must be fully subject to corporate tax and must fulfil all the new eligibility criteria, as described in Taxflash T16026.
Beneficial owners wishing to obtain the benefit of the reduced rate of 1.6995% have to use the new self-certification, available on our Tax Forms to use - Belgium page, which reflects the latest changes.
Further information
For further information, please contact the Clearstream Banking1 Tax Help Desk or Clearstream Banking Client Services or your Relationship Officer.
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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 Frankfurt customers using CreationOnline), registered office at 61, Mergenthalerallee, 65760 Eschborn, Germany and registered in Register B of the Amtsgericht Frankfurt am Main, Germany under number HRB 7500.