Requirement 1: Power of attorney
If you make the claim as an agent for one or more shareholders you need a power of attorney from the individual shareholder. If there are more representatives between you and the shareholder, you need a signed power of attorney from all representatives.
Requirement 2: Place of residence statement for tax purposes
You need to submit a place of residence statement or other documentation certified by the relevant foreign competent authority stating the shareholder's place of residence for tax purposes at the time of dividend distribution unless a valid tax exemption card issued by the Danish Tax Agency (Skattestyrelsen) is submitted along with the claim.
Please see Declaring and paying dividend and dividend tax for further information about valid dividend-tax exemption card.
The purpose of the statement is to document that the shareholder is subject to full tax liability in his home country. Please note that a passport or a tax return is not a place of residence statement for tax purposes.
There may be special rules that apply to the issuing of place of residence statements in your country. See example of a statement of principal place of residence, form 02.050 for private individuals and form 02.051 for companies.
Requirements 3 and 4: Examples of documentation
Please see below for examples of how requirements 3 and 4 can be documented.
Dividend voucher
The documentation must state that Danish dividend tax has been withheld. You can see this on a voucher or dividend statement issued by the shareholder's depository bank, for example. This statement will most often include the date when the dividend distribution was approved.
Statement of account
You need to document that the dividend has been deposited into the account. Attach a copy of the shareholder's statement of account, for example, possibly along with a swift confirmation or screen print from the bank system.
If the dividend has been transferred via several banks, you need to submit documentation for all parts of the transfer.
Custody account statement
Attach a custody account statement to give an overview of the shareholder's shareholding at the time when the dividend distribution was approved so that the number of shares at that time corresponds to the number of shares for which refund of Danish dividend tax is claimed.
Moreover, the custody account statement must also state any movement in the shareholding for the period six months before the dividend distribution and until six months after the dividend distribution. If you make a claim within six months after the time of dividend distribution, the statement must instead show movements up until the time when the claim was made.
Purchase voucher
Documentation is required if the shareholder has bought or sold shares within a period of six months before and after the time when the dividend distribution was approved. Such documentation could be proof of trade, receipt or a SWIFT confirmation. If you make a claim within six months after the time the dividend distribution was approved, you must attach documentation for purchases and sales up until the time the claim was made.
Power of attorney
If you make the claim as an agent, you need a power of attorney signed by the shareholder. If there are more representatives between you and the shareholder, you need a signed power of attorney from all representatives. See example of a power of attorney form 02.043.
Share lending
The claim must state whether the shares were borrowed from or lent to others at the time when the dividend distribution was approved.
In practice, for tax purposes, share lending agreements with a term of at least six months are considered lending of shares and not disposal of shares. According to recent cases, it has also been established that, for tax purposes, agreements without a pre-arranged fixed term, but where both the lender and the borrower may terminate a loan at few days’ notice, also qualify as share lending and not share disposal.
Usually, share lending agreements are prepared based on the Danish standard conditions or the standard conditions issued by the International Securities Lending Association (ISLA) or the Overseas Securities Lending Agreement (OSLA).
In a share lending agreement between a lender and a borrower, the lender will thus remain the beneficial owner of dividends for tax purposes. Therefore, it is solely the party who is considered the beneficial owner of dividends for tax purposes who is entitled to claim a refund of dividend tax.
The lender remains the beneficial owner of dividends and the actual shareholder even after he has lent the shares. A person is the actual shareholder if he owned the shares at the time the dividend payment was declared, meaning that he owned the shares on the vesting date.
Dividend payments are usually declared at the company’s annual general meeting or its extraordinary general meeting. For tax purposes dividends are understood as everything distributed by a company to actual shareholders.
If the borrower resells the shares to a third party, the lender will not be charged tax on disposal of shares. However, the third party becomes the temporary beneficial owner of dividends. Thus, the third party is taxed on the dividends and the third party is also entitled to receive a possible refund of dividend tax if too much dividend tax has been withheld.
Requirement 5: Double taxation agreement, EU Parent-Subsidiary Directive or Danish tax law
Please state the reason why the shareholder is entitled to claim a refund of Danish dividend tax in the online claim form. This may also be stated in a double taxation agreement, the EU Parent-Subsidiary Directive or current Danish tax law.