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Information and public services for the Island of Jersey

L'înformâtion et les sèrvices publyis pouor I'Île dé Jèrri

2010 retention tax payments made to the EU Member States

Jersey’s Comptroller of Taxes has sent to EU Member States a total of £4 million in retention tax for the year 2010. 

Retention tax is applied by Jersey paying agents and passed to the Comptroller of Taxes in accordance with agreements entered into with each of the 27 EU Member States on the taxation of eligible savings income that individuals resident in the Member States are receiving from the Island.

Under the terms of the agreements, 75% of the tax retained (£4 million) is sent to the individual Member States and the remaining 25% (£1.3 million) is retained by the Treasury. Due to the fuller effect of low interest rates, the amount of tax retained in 2010 is significantly less than in 2009 when £8.85 million was sent to the Member States and £2.99 million was retained by the Treasury.

EU Savings Directive retention tax distribution list

Year 2010 (distributed June 2011)
GBP EUR USD CHF Sterling total
Austria 2010 20,928 328 458 0 21,508
Belgium 2010 36,457 11,617 2,508 0 47,845
Bulgaria 2010 1,953 17 2 0 1,969
Cyprus 2010 73,163 2,069 6,792 0 79,272
Czech Republic 2010 8,585 778 81 0 9,333
Germany 2010 113,578 6,655 4,251 0 122,194
Denmark 2010 11,598 43 827 0 12,155
Estonia 2010 87 0 0 0 87
Spain 2010 325,953 22,784 8,637 0 363,897
Finland 2010 7,260 5 20 0 7,277
France 2010 246,865 24,727 98,456 0 330,710
Great Britain 2010 2,082,024 55,682 134,960 60 2,216,303
Greece 2010 82,275 105,538 80,512 138 226,060
Hungary 2010 16,437 1,409 82 0 17,748
Ireland 2010 81,016 3,453 5,213 0 87,373
Italy 2010 126,808 5,490 774 0 132,202
Lithuania 2010 1,584 1 4 0 1,588
Luxembourg 2010 5,803 270 55 0 6,079
Latvia 2010 520 6 138 0 612
Malta 2010 104,754 436 2,936 0 106,985
Netherlands 2010 42,701 19,078 1,547 0 60,731
Poland 2010 18,236 6,749 41 0 24,297
Portugal 2010 93,863 2,881 3,685 0 98,750
Romania 2010 1,380 60 335 0 1,644
Sweden 2010 38,361 4,846 23,468 0 57,409
Slovenia 2010 387 2 0 0 389
Slovak Republic 2010 114 0 20 0 127
Total 3,542,690 274,924 375,802 198 4,034,544

Supplementary information

1. When the EU member states implemented, with effect from 1 July 2005, a directive on the taxation of savings income, Jersey, in common with a number of other dependent or associated territories of the member states and 5 European third countries (Andorra, Liechtenstein, Monaco, San Marino and Switzerland) agreed to support the European Union by applying a withholding / retention tax to savings income arising in the Island, the beneficial owner of which is an individual who resides in a Member State. Within the EU, Austria and Luxembourg are also applying a withholding tax. The remaining 25 Member States of the European Union are automatically exchanging information on savings income.

2. The States of Jersey enacted the Taxation (Agreements with European Union Member States) (Jersey) Regulations 2005. Under these regulations, the Comptroller of Taxes is appointed as the Competent Authority for the collection of the tax and its remittance to the relevant Member States.

3. The regulations provide that tax retained in respect of each year be transferred to the relevant Member State within 6 months of the end of the tax year. For the first 3 years (July 2005 – July 2008) retention tax was at the rate of 15%; for the following 3 years (July 2008 – July 2011) the rate is 20%; and thereafter the rate will be 35%.

4. The agreements with the 27 EU Member States provide for the individuals subject to the retention tax to choose to opt for voluntary disclosure of information to the tax authorities of their Member State of residence as an alternative to paying the tax.  For the year 2010 the total number of disclosures was 13% higher than in 2009 and those opting for voluntary disclosure accounted for 80% of the total interest payments covered by the agreements (for 2009 the proportion was 65%).

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