Q. What is eTaxData Online for?
A. Primarily its a tool for investors and FIs assess the impact of withholding tax on cross border investment income.

Q. Who is GlobeTax?
Founded in 1992, GlobeTax is a US based firm, and at more than a million reclaims a year, is the largest filer of withholding tax reclaims in the world. We also file applications for relief at source for our clients.

Q. What can I do at the "Rates" screen?
A. At the Rates screen you can make one or more selections from the available options, which include; beneficial owner type, residency of beneficial owner, country of issue and year of dividend payment. When selected, the system will generate a table to show what the statutory (domestic) withholding rate is in the country of issue, the treaty rate with the country of beneficial owner residence, plus the filing deadline (statute of limitations) for that country and how long it should take you to get any tax entitlement back from that country after filing for a reclaim or applying for relief at source, if available.

Q. Do the rates cover all the major countries?
A. Yes. Some countries do not have treaties with each other. In this case, there is no "treaty rate" that an investor can access to reduce the level of withholding. Other pairs of countries have agreed to adopt a Relief at Source "RAS" taxation model and some use a combination of both RAS and Reclaim. In fact, over 90% of all tax reclaims are filed in just 36 countries.

Q. What can I do at the "One-Div" screen.
A. At this screen you can enter data about a single dividend distribution you or your client has received. The system will use the information you provide about the type and residency of the beneficial owner to whom the distribution was made and the tax paid at distribution, to assess what kind of recoverable entitlement the beneficial owner may have. As an additional feature if the amount is commercially viable to recover or if the recoverable amount is close to falling outside of the filing deadline for that country, the system will red flag the result so that you know that urgent attention is required for this data combination.

Q. What Can I do at the Multi-Div Screen?
At Multi-Div, you can enter details of more than one dividend payment (up to 10). The payments can come from more than one country of issue, but the beneficial owner type and residency must be the same for all payments, as would be the case with a typical portfolio of holdings. There is no need to enter any confidential details, although this screen should be used to assess actual distributions that have been received. If you want to enter more income lines than the screen allows, you can download and submit a spreadsheet with as many lines as you like.

Q. What can I do at the Position screen?
A. This screen is a modeling tool. You don't have to have actually received a dividend payment. You may just want to know whether there is a withholding tax issue you might have to address. Just download the spreadsheet, fill it in and submit it to GlobeTax. We will perform a free analysis of your data and predict what tax recovery you would have been entitled to if you or your client had held the relevant securities over their last record date.

Q. How does GlobeTax compile its rate data?
A. We use a combination of methods including desk research but our main sources include a complete global agent bank network and most importantly the tax authorities themselves with whom we have excellent relationships. Apart from the direct interpretation of a tax authority, we never use a rate datum unless confirmed by at least two other sources.

Q. Do I have to give out confidential information to use the product?
A. No. At no point are you asked to provide details which could identify you or your client's individual holdings in any security.

Q. Is information about me held by GlobeTax under data protection rules?
A. Yes. As a subscriber to eTaxData Online, GlobeTax will have information about your firm, its address and your name as an authorised user at the subscribing firm. This data is held in the USA. GlobeTax is a signatory to the Safe Harbor Act which means that GlobeTax warrants that it holds and manages data to the same standards as if the data were held within the European Union. The European Commission has approved the US Safe Harbor Act as a safe and legal mechanism for US companies to receive and hold data about European Union citizens.

Q. What if I think the rate data is wrong?
A. International withholding tax is a very complex area and the rate that actually applies to any given set of circumstances may be affected by many factors. If you think the rate you are given by the system is wrong for any reason, you can send a feedback request to etaxdata@globetax.com quoting your user ID, name and the reason you think the rate may be wrong. We may need to contact you at the location you gave when subscribing to verify enough further details to give you an answer.