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Delivering specialist Withholding Tax recovery services

An estimated $13.5 billion of withholding taxes are left unclaimed in the EU alone every year. However, most institutional investors and corporations are unaware they are able to claim back up to 100% of their withheld taxes.

Our Solution

Longreach Sirius’ aim is to enable international investors to assess and recover the excess Withholding Tax applied to their international dividends, coupons and interest.

Our goal is to act as a “top-up” solution to supplement the Custodians’ withholding tax services.

We have partnered with a specialist Withholding Tax recovery firm that utilises proprietary software to assess the potentially unclaimed Withholding Tax, and who then will file the reclaims to the relevant tax offices on a client’s behalf.

We are focused on building strong, trusting relationships with our clients, monitoring and recouping their ongoing excess Withholding Tax.

A core proposition for Longreach Sirius is to deliver this service with no upfront cost to the client. A fee is only charged upon a successful reclaim.

Minimal time is required of an investor’s Operations teams, as the tax submissions and analysis are conducted on the client’s behalf with data readily available from the client’s Custodian.

Withholding Tax Recovery

What is it?

Withholding Tax on dividends (and other foreign investment income) is a form of taxation imposed by a country on the payment of certain income to non-resident shareholders.

To prevent double taxation, many countries have entered into double tax treaties that provide relief from withholding tax on certain foreign investment income.

These treaties typically enable reduced withholding tax rates or exemptions for eligible recipients based on their country of residence.

Industry Problem?

Typically, it is up to an investor’s Custodian to reclaim their Withholding Tax, in accordance with the treaties.

However, due to a multitude of reasons (e.g. time, resources, technology and jurisdictional requirements) a material portion of these Withholding Taxes are left unclaimed, at the expense of investors.

These taxes equate to billions of dollars globally and up to 100% of them are reclaimable.

Reclaim Opportunity

Typically, around 50% of the dividend tax paid to an offshore jurisdiction can be reclaimed. Depending on the investor tax profile and applicable treaty, up to a 100% of the Withholding Tax may be reclaimed.

Additionally, each country has their own Statute of Limitations that enable recovery of taxes up to as far back as 5 years.

For example, between Canada and the United States, an investor can claim 3 years of withheld taxes from the past, plus the current year of taxes, leading to 4 year’s worth of reclaims.

Australian Example

  • Switzerland has a 35% statutory Withholding Tax rate on dividends.
  • Switzerland and Australia have a Tax Treaty which reduces this Withholding Tax rate on dividends to only 15% for Australian resident investors.
  • Importantly, for Australian Superannuation funds, this treaty reduces their Withholding Tax rate on dividends to 0%.
  • This tax is withheld by the Swiss Federal Tax Administration and needs to be manually reclaimed on the investor’s behalf in order to benefit from the treaty.
  • By reclaiming, the investor is receiving a 57% recovery of the Dividend Tax e.g. If the Dividend Yield for an Equity held is 3%, then by recovering the excess Withholding Tax eligible via the treaty, there would be a 30% improvement in the dividend yield.

Our Team

Longreach Sirius is a team of experienced industry professionals enabling delivery of innovative Withholding Tax solutions for institutional investors.

Samuel Mann

Chief Executive Officer, Executive Director

Andrew Flitcroft

Chief Operating Officer, Executive Director

Max Robins-Burnard

Co-Founder & Executive Director

Mark Nieuwoudt

Head of Product and Operations

Irene Cheung

Manager, Product and Operations

Kelly Tang

Senior Analyst, Product and Operations

Who can benefit from Withholdings Tax recovery?

A variety of client types are impacted by the excess Withholding Taxes that are left unclaimed on income producing international investments. Longreach Sirius is able to support the following client types with the recovery of their excess Withholding Tax in conjunction with their Custodian:

Superannuation Funds
Asset Managers
Family Offices
Private Banks
International Corporations
Contact us to learn more

Contact Us

Please get in touch.

Longreach Sirius

Lvl 9, 88 Phillip Street,
Sydney NSW 2000

Email our Client Service Team:
info@longreachalternatives.com
+61 2 9135 0428
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