PensionsEurope drafted a document, reacting to the 13 November 2023 compromise text on FASTER from the Spanish presidency. We appreciate the Belgium presidency’s willingness to move forward on this very important file for institutional investors such as pension funds. Indeed, refund requests or exemption requests are often an extensive and burdensome process, with different procedures and requirements among Member States.
We indicate in the following document that FASTER procedures should not just be available to fiscally transparent collective investment undertakings that are EU-regulated as Alternative Investment Funds (AIF) or Undertakings for Collective Investments in Transferable Securities (UCITS). Furthermore, the Digital tax residence certificate (eTRC) should be the model for due diligence in all witholding tax procedures.
This paper has been sent to the Belgium presidency and the Commission.