Hammered by Irish dividend withholding taxes and stingy double taxation agreement
Posted: January 8th, 2024, 4:53 pm
I have a large holding of Accenture shares that are domiciled in Ireland (despite being a US company).
Ireland now deducts 25% dividend withholding tax.... but the double taxation treaty with the UK only allows for 15%. Is it common for double taxation treaties to not cover all the tax you've paid? It basically means I am paying 10% too much tax unless I can reclaim the difference from Ireland.
Having tried to reclaim it from Ireland.... I've provided a statement from Accenture confirming they have withheld the tax and the Irish government account number they've paid it into. I also have my consolidated tax statement from HSBC showing all my dividends and the Irish DWT tax deducted.
However the Irish tax office is insisting that I provide proof of the dividend going from Accenture to HSBC even though they accept it is a nominee account so will basically be a single dividend voucher for thousands of customers combined that bears no reference to me. HSBC will never provide me with that dividend voucher as it would clearly not be specific to me.... and even just trying to explain the issue to the call centre would be impossible. It's not like HSBC would randomly have paid me a dividend without receiving it themselves so the request seems ridiculous.
It's almost like it's a deliberate approach by the Irish tax office to make it so difficult to reclaim any tax that people just give up!!
Has anyone else managed to reclaim dividend withholding tax from Ireland successfully??
Ireland now deducts 25% dividend withholding tax.... but the double taxation treaty with the UK only allows for 15%. Is it common for double taxation treaties to not cover all the tax you've paid? It basically means I am paying 10% too much tax unless I can reclaim the difference from Ireland.
Having tried to reclaim it from Ireland.... I've provided a statement from Accenture confirming they have withheld the tax and the Irish government account number they've paid it into. I also have my consolidated tax statement from HSBC showing all my dividends and the Irish DWT tax deducted.
However the Irish tax office is insisting that I provide proof of the dividend going from Accenture to HSBC even though they accept it is a nominee account so will basically be a single dividend voucher for thousands of customers combined that bears no reference to me. HSBC will never provide me with that dividend voucher as it would clearly not be specific to me.... and even just trying to explain the issue to the call centre would be impossible. It's not like HSBC would randomly have paid me a dividend without receiving it themselves so the request seems ridiculous.
It's almost like it's a deliberate approach by the Irish tax office to make it so difficult to reclaim any tax that people just give up!!
Has anyone else managed to reclaim dividend withholding tax from Ireland successfully??