France: Annual submission of Form 5000 and Form RPPM for relief at source on French dividend income – Reminder
Submission and renewal of Form 5000
Clients of Clearstream Banking1 are reminded that if you use the simplified procedure to claim relief at source from tax withheld on dividends, you must renew Form 5000 certifying the residence status of the beneficial owner for 2024 according to the existing procedure for non-resident beneficial owners whose country of residence has a Double Taxation Treaty (DTT) with France.
For beneficial owners to benefit from this relief at source for the calendar year 2024, a renewed Form 5000 (Dividends – simplified procedure) must be filed as soon as possible, but no later than 09:00 CET 10 business days before the first dividend payment date to which it applies. The Form 5000 must be dated before the first relevant dividend payment in 2024.
Certification specifics for clients
As a general statement, to avoid an uncertified period and thereby to ensure relief at source on eligible dividend payments for all certified beneficial owners, clients are strongly recommended to start the renewal procedure, if appropriate, as early as possible in the first quarter of 2024. However, please see below specific requirements related to the potential previous certification or the particular status of the beneficial owner:
- For all beneficial owners who have not filed a Form 5000 in 2023
Beneficial owners for whom a Form 5000 for 2023 has not been submitted are reminded that the form, duly completed, signed and stamped, must be received as soon as possible, but no later than 09:00 CET 10 business days before the first dividend payment to which it applies. - For beneficial owners who have filed a Form 5000 in 2023
For beneficial owners for whom a Form 5000 for 2023 has been submitted, its validity will be extended according to the following general rules:- A Form 5000 submitted in 2023 remains valid until 31 March 2024 on the condition that we receive a new Form 5000, duly completed, signed and stamped by the local tax authorities of the final beneficial owner before the end of March 2023.
- The payments of the first quarter of 2024 are certified and relief at source will be applied, based on the form received in 2023. However, if no new Form 5000 is submitted by the end of March 2024, reversals will be required for this payment period.
- For beneficial owners that are covered by a DTT with France and are investment companies or hold funds under an investment scheme
As the collective entitlement of such companies and funds to DTT benefits are limited to the proportion of their unit/shareholders that are residents of their home country (that is, the country for which the DTT benefit is claimed), this percentage must be 100 in order to be eligible for the simplified procedure.
An eligible beneficial owner that is a collective investment scheme must, in most cases2, fill in Box VII of Form 5000 to certify the percentage of shareholders eligible under the respective DTT during the accounting period in which the profit was realised (that is, directly prior the dividend payment period).
Note: The accounting period may not correspond to a calendar year and so multiple Forms 5000 may be required. In such a case, on condition that a Form 5000 signed by the local tax authorities is already in place for the calendar year, the newly submitted Form 5000 can be signed and dated by the beneficial owner/representative only (that is, not by the local tax authorities). - For beneficial owners being foreign individuals benefiting from the 12.8% domestic tax rate
The Form 5000 or Certificate of Residence (COR) have a validity period of three (3) years. - For all foreign individual beneficial owners who have not filed a Form 5000 or COR within the past three years
Beneficial owners for whom no Form 5000 or COR has been submitted since 2021 are reminded that the form, duly completed, signed and stamped, must be received as soon as possible, but no later than 09:00 CET 10 business days before the first dividend payment to which it applies. - For foreign individual beneficial owners who have filed a Form 5000 or COR (dated in 2021, 2022 or 2023) within the past three years
For beneficial owners for whom a Form 5000 or COR for 2021, 2022 or 2023 has been submitted, its validity was automatically extended until 31 March of the third year following the year of signature of the certificate, with the obligation to renew in 2024 according to the schedule below. Please also refer to Announcement C18022.
For all foreign individual beneficial owners who have filed a form 5000 or COR in the past three years | ||
Date of form 5000/COR | Validity of form 5000/COR | Renewal deadline |
2021 | 31/03/2024 | 31/03/2024 |
2022 | 31/03/2025 | 31/03/2025 |
2023 | 31/03/2026 | 31/03/2026 |
Important note on completion of section III of forms 5000
Clearstream Banking requires the section III of the form 5000 to be fully completed by all beneficial owners.
The French tax authorities (FTA) recently confirmed that if sections III and IV are correctly and fully completed, there is no obligation to provide an additional tax attestation to prove the tax liability of the beneficial owner.
The non-completion of this attestation of being subject to tax in the beneficial owner’s country of residence will lead to a longer treatment of the form and to potential impossibility to offer the simplified procedure. Beneficial owners that are recognised as being normally not subject to tax in their country of residence (pension funds, investment funds, non-profit organisations etc.) will in this situation be obliged to provide an amended form 5000 or an additional tax attestation to prove that they are taxable.
Please refer to Announcement A17150 for more details.
Important note on acceptance of forms 5000
Each form is available in French, German, English, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Chinese and Portuguese; and is to be completed in triplicate: two versions in the foreign language most appropriate to the DTT country and one version in French.
The information in all three copies is identical and they must all three be completed and sent to the local tax authorities of the beneficial owner’s country of residence for certification purposes.
Certification of the local tax authorities
It must be done after full completion and signature by the final beneficial owner.
The certification with a COR is accepted only if the beneficial owner is a foreign individual or if the foreign tax authority has officially informed the FTA that it will no longer certify box IV of the form 5000. In such case, a non-certified Form 5000 still has to be provided together with the COR.
The forms must be printed on both sides.
The copies are processed as follows:
- The first local language copy is kept by the tax authorities of the beneficial owner’s country of residence;
- The second local language copy is returned and kept by the beneficial owner;
- The third copy, in French, is returned and submitted to the French Tax Authorities.
Submission of Form RPPM
For Collective Investment Vehicles (CIVs), relief at source from withholding tax is only granted upon submission of Form RPPM. Form RPPM is valid until revoked for both UCITS and AIFs.
- For beneficial owners who have not filed a Form RPPM in 2023
Beneficial owners for whom a Form RPPM for 2023 has not been submitted are reminded that the form, duly completed, signed and stamped, must be received as soon as possible, but no later than 09:00 CET 10 business days before the first dividend payment to which it applies. - For beneficial owners who have submitted their Form RPPM in 2023, renewal is not needed in 2024 as the forms are valid until revoked.
Further information
For further information about the withholding tax procedures for French equities, please refer to the Market Taxation Guide - France.
Clients may contact the Tax Help Desk, Clearstream Banking Client Services or their 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, registered office at 61, Mergenthalerallee, 65760 Eschborn, Germany and registered in Register B of the Amtsgericht Frankfurt am Main, Germany under number HRB 7500.
2. For Investment companies and funds from the U.S.A. and Trinidad and Tobago, treaty benefits apply, as indicated in the notes accompanying Form 5000, to all French-source income and, consequently, in these cases, Box VII of Form 5000 should not be filled in.