jewel. This begs the question whether they have finally given up on withholding
tax.
As founder and CEO of TAXOLOGY, a Dutch fintech start-up, I believe that waiting for standardization and unification of withholding tax relief procedures is “idle hope”. A decade and a half have past and I have seen no improvement. The only improvement is that a few tax administrations have started automating the relief procedure (filing and processing of claims’), but again without standardization or unification: each member state follows its own path.
Perhaps it is because there is too little impetus for improvement. Think about it:
source countries have no blame as long as they are adhering to all the rules for
relief, but they are in their own right to determine the procedure. Why would they
simplify, standardize or unify that procedure when that only loses them money,
twice? Once for the cost of overhauling the procedure, and again because more
investors would claim the relief they are entitled to. One could argue that what
they have to gain is easier access to capital from foreign investors. But,