Tax Administration's decision on the contents and period of validity of the Investor-Self Declaration, and the procedure with which its reliability is verified

Record number of the original decision in Finnish and Swedish VH/4332/00.01.00/2020

Under § 10 b, subsection 4 of the on Act on the Taxation of Nonresidents' Income (627/1978), as § 10 b, subsection 4 stands in the Act (522/2019), the Tax Administration has decided the following:

§ 1

The contents of the declaration

The dividend beneficiary must in the Investor Self-Declaration referred to in § 10 b, subsection 4 of the Act on the Taxation of Nonresidents' Income declare and confirm to be correct the following information:

1. the number of the account, where the shares are held;
2. the country of residence for tax purposes as referred to in the tax treaty between the dividend beneficiary's country of residence and Finland;
3. the tax identification number issued by the country of residence;
4. as identifying information the name, date of birth and address of a natural person; the name, address, legal form and country of registration or the country, under whose laws it is established, of other than a natural person.

In the declaration, the dividend beneficiary must give the following certifications:

1. I certify that I am a resident of my country of residence for tax purposes as referred to in the tax treaty between my country of residence and Finland.
2. I certify that I am not acting as an agent, nominee or conduit with respect to the dividend to which this declaration relates.
3. I certify that I am the beneficial owner of the dividend as referred to in the tax treaty between my country of residence and Finland, and that I meet the criteria for tax at source benefits of the applicable tax treaty with respect to the dividend to which this declaration relates.
4. I certify that the dividend, to which this declaration relates, is not attributable to a permanent establishment.
5. I undertake to inform the intermediary of changes in my circumstances without undue delay.

If a dividend beneficiary other than a natural person claims a tax rate lower than the general tax at source rate in the tax treaty to be applied, they must specify the applicable tax rate, certify that they are eligible for the tax treaty benefit in question, and specify the grounds for their claim.

The dividend beneficiary must authorise the Authorised Intermediary to provide the Tax Administration with the information required to verify the correctness of tax at source and the reliability of the Investor Self-Declaration, if other applicable legislation requires this kind of authorisation.

§ 2

The period of validity of the declaration

The Investor Self-Declaration is valid no more than the year it is signed and the following five years.

If the dividend beneficiary is a government or other public entity, or an international organisation, the declaration is valid until further notice.

§ 3

The procedure to verify the reliability of the declaration

The payor or the Authorised Intermediary referred to in § 10 d of the Act on the Taxation of Nonresidents' Income must ensure, that the dividend beneficiary has in the Investor Self-Declaration provided the information referred to in § 1 of this decision and confirmed the information to be correct. The reliability of the Investor Self-Declaration must be verified based on the information required by the common information exchange standards, and anti-money laundering and know your customer legislation, as well as the information otherwise available to the payor or the Authorised Intermediary on the dividend beneficiary.

The reliability of the declaration must then be verified again, if the payor or the Authorised Intermediary receives information on a change in the dividend beneficiary's circumstances.

The payor or the Authorised Intermediary must, based on the information available to them, confirm before the dividend payment whether the declaration is reliable.

The confirmation referred to above in subsection 3 is not required, if the tax at source withheld from the dividend is at least 15 per cent or the dividend amount is under 10 000 euros.

The information referred to above in subsection 1 must be available to the payor or the Authorised Intermediary when verifying the reliability of the declaration in accordance with the procedure referred to in this section.

§ 4

Entry into force

This decision comes into force on 1 January 2021.

Helsinki, September 14, 2020