9. Reporting

In this chapter I will explore the new field of tax reporting. Cross-border investment withholding tax has, historically, not been the subject of reporting. Once a tax reclaim or claim of relief had been granted, there was no further action needed by intermediary or investor. The advent of anti-tax evasion regulations has had an effect on this and begun a trend towards reporting of tax relief and tax reclaim reporting so that tax authorities can effectively “join the dots”. The US began this with 1042-S reporting and is generally included as a concept in the TRACE framework as well as the EU Code of Conduct. Financial institutions spend enormous resources gathering and checking data for reporting to their domestic and now foreign tax authorities. This raises important questions about legality of collection and data protection, both of which will be explored in this chapter.