France: updated procedure for requesting Tax Attestations on French issuer distributions
Effective
Immediately
the Standard “Attestation de Paiement” and the Simplified “Attestation de Paiement” are no longer being issued. Any proof of payment at the level of the final Beneficial Owner (BO) will be delivered through the Standard or Simplified Attestation 2777.
Consequently, the procedure described in announcement A12075, dated 5 April 2012, is no longer valid. Please refer to the below updated procedure.
N.B.: The delivery of an Attestation may take more than 25 calendar days from the date that such valid request is received by Clearstream Banking.
Clearstream Banking1 will process customers' requests and issue the Attestations on a “best efforts” basis only.
It is the customer's responsibility to provide a valid and complete request in order to enable us to process such request and deliver the Attestation.
We do not guarantee that the relevant competent authorities will grant entitlement to a customer’s tax reclaim.
We would like to inform customers that Clearstream realises the specific importance of this matter at the moment and that we will do our best in order to handle customer requests as quickly as possible.
Background
The Attestation is issued by our French tax agent BNP Paribas Securities Services (BPSS) and is considered as a credit advice of the payment from BPSS to us at Clearstream providing evidence that tax was withheld at source for a past taxable dividend payment.
Types of Attestation
In cases of requests for proof of tax applied on a past payment, the Attestation will be issued by BPSS (as tax agent) upon request from the customer. Depending on how the payment was taxed at source or whether a refund was already requested by a beneficial owner, the Attestation will be issued as one of the following types:
Attestations with several payments listed in the same Attestation 2777:
- Global Standard Attestation 2777 issued per dividend year, per Clearstream securities account;
This Attestation is issued by BPSS to Clearstream reflecting the global position of Clearstream that was taxed at payment date at the maximum tax rate (25% / 30%). - Global Simplified Attestation 2777 issued per dividend year, per Clearstream securities account;
This Attestation reflects the global position of Clearstream that was taxed at payment date at a reduced tax rate (15% / other Double Taxation Treaty (DTT) rate) due to the relief at source procedure as described in the Market Taxation Guide (France). - Standard Attestation 2777 issued per Clearstream securities account, per dividend year, per beneficial owner;
This Attestation mentions the beneficial owner and reflects the specific position of the specified beneficial owner that was taxed at the maximum tax rate (25% / 30%) for the specified payment date. This Attestation is only available if a standard refund was processed and paid for the specified beneficial owner via Clearstream and BPSS as described in the Market Taxation Guide (France). - Simplified Attestation 2777 issued per Clearstream securities account, per dividend year, per beneficial owner;
This Attestation mentions the beneficial owner and reflects the specific position of the specified beneficial owner that was taxed at a reduced tax rate (15% or any other DTT rate) via the relief at source procedure for the specified payment date as described in the Market Taxation Guide (France).
Attestations with one single payment listed in the BPSS credit advice “Attestation de Paiement”:
- Global Standard “Attestation de Paiement”, per Clearstream securities account;
The “Attestation de Paiement” reflects the global position of Clearstream for one specific payment that was taxed at the maximum tax rate (25% / 30%) for the specified payment date. - Global Simplified “Attestation de Paiement”, per Clearstream securities account;
The “Attestation de Paiement” reflects the global position of Clearstream for one specific payment that was taxed at a reduced tax rate via the relief at source (15% or any other DTT rate) for the specified payment date.
Important note: BPSS can issue an Attestation in the name of the beneficial owner if a relief at source or standard refund was requested and processed via Clearstream/ BPSS for that final beneficial owner. In such cases, Clearstream and BPSS will have sufficient documentation to verify the payment details for the specified beneficial owner; for the other cases, BPSS can only issue Global Attestations.
Requesting the Attestation via Clearstream
The relevant Attestation can be obtained in the following steps:
| 1. | The customer selects and completes the relevant Request for Attestation (attached at the end of this Announcement) and submit it to Clearstream at the new dedicated email address: att2777@clearstream.com |
| 2. | Upon receipt and after verification of the submitted details, we will forward the information to our local depository, who will issue the relevant type of Attestation and deliver it to us. Invalid requests will be rejected and returned for correction to the customer via email and MT599. |
| 3. | Upon receipt of the Attestation, we will forward the original signed Attestation by registered post to the customer. |
Checks to be performed by the customer before submitting the Attestation request to Clearstream:
- All customer requests must specify clearly, in addition to the required details, the type of Attestation being requested.
- Each request may only contain payments related to the same payment year.
- CASCADE accounts and Creation accounts may not be listed together in the same request.
Important note: The Attestation does not replace the full chain of credit advices and can be considered as proof of tax withheld at the level of the tax agent only: it cannot be considered as a credit advice of payment from Clearstream to the customer. A Clearstream credit advice, if required, must be requested separately.
Further information
For further information, customers may contact Clearstream Banking Tax Help Desk, Clearstream Banking Client Services or their Relationship Officer.
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1. Clearstream Banking refers collectively to 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, and 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.