Removing Cross-Border Tax Barriers

The achievement of a fully-fledged capital market union has to confront many obstacles, which must be removed to harvest the full benefits of the freedom of capital movements. Amongst these obstacles, capital market investors and the member states continue to single out the withholding tax procedures as a long standing and highly damaging barrier to cross-border investment. In 2009 the European Commission issued a Recommendation on withholding tax procedures which identified various possible remedies. These included tax relief at source (when the relevant information in the residence state is available to the source state); standardised and quick refund procedures; an improved discipline for withholding agents, notably allowing foreign financial intermediaries to act as withholding agents; the simplification of documentation proving entitlement to tax relief, including broader use of electronic means. These recommendations maintain their full validity.