reclaimer - WHT applications Austria

Austria - Tax allocation of dividends on the AGM-Date minus one

Zürich, Apr 2023

With the ruling of the Austrian Supreme Administrative Court (Ro2022/13/0002), the tax allocation of a dividend was "clarified", contrary to the usual market practice. This decision has a significant impact on reclaims for Austrian withholding tax on dividends. Since this decision, only the person who was the beneficial owner of the securities at the Annual General Meeting (AGM) is entitled to reclaim the Austrian withholding tax. Thus, the holdings on the day before the AGM (AGM day -1) is relevant for the refund entitlement. Due to this new regulation and the fact that in Austria often one to two weeks pass between the day of the AGM and the cum-date, various questions arise:
- What if the seller sells some or all of the securities after the AGM-date but by the cum date?
- Respectively, what if the buyer hold them in his portfolio on the cum-date, but not on AGM day -1?
- What is the situation if the total holding of a security was bought or sold at different times (before or after HV-Day -1)?

We have clarified these questions together with the Austrian tax authorities. If you would like to know more about this and how complex issues can be solved very easily for the user, please contact us for a non-binding live demo of the most modern withholding tax solution on the market.