Degiro- German Tax Vouchers for DWT

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bazlad

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I have some German shares with Degiro, which are subject to the standard 26.38% Dividend withholding tax.
Under the double taxation agreement with Ireland and Germany, anyone subject to this DWT can claim some of this back to the German tax authorities, but you are required to provide the German tax voucher known as 'Steurerbescheinigung'.
It appears under German tax law the bank that deducted the DWT is required to provide this on request.

I requested Degiro to provide this but they said they do not do this, because essentially "it is subject to strict rules", which seems code for 'we couldn't be bothered'.

Has anyone had experience with this, and how can you get the relevant Tax Voucher if Degiro refuses to provide it?
 
can you ask DeGiro for a clarification as to why they will not provide this? Which specific strict rules prevent them from providing the tax document?
 
Oh great, another “I went to De Giro because they were the cheapest and now I’m moaning because I don’t get Goldman Sachs levels of service” thread.

To be filed alongside the ‘bonkamonkey.com are paying 4.33% for deposits, how much should I put with them’ threads’
 
I sent the statement page and a copy of the Annual tax statement to the German revenue.

Screenshot_2024-04-17-15-42-23-382.jpeg


I am still waiting for a reply.
 
Gordon Gekko said:
Oh great, another “I went to De Giro because they were the cheapest and now I’m moaning because I don’t get Goldman Sachs levels of service” thread.

To be filed alongside the ‘bonkamonkey.com are paying 4.33% for deposits, how much should I put with them’ threads’
Click to expand...
very mature response, thanks for your input.
i didnt complain about Degiro, i was asking if anyone else had gone through this with them, this is after all the purpose of a forum like this.

I'm with other more 'traditional' stock brokers, and they also give the same response but eventually agree to provide a Tax Voucher.
You are also confusing low transaction fees with low overall fees. With the type of trading that Degiro facilitate, I end up paying a considerable amount of fees over the year, so I certainly don't think that it is unreasonable to ask for a tax voucher for the Dividends they deducted due to the German requirement to do so.
 
daheff said:
can you ask DeGiro for a clarification as to why they will not provide this? Which specific strict rules prevent them from providing the tax document?
Click to expand...

they haven't said, but my understanding is that they would need to liaise with the local entity (bank) that deducted the tax, and this could be time-consuming on their side. However, as Degiro is now owned by Flatex, a German bank, in this case, the local entity is presumably themselves, so they could maybe be a bit more accommodating on this going forward.

As an update: they have now come back and confirmed they can now provide a Tax Voucher, which is different to the advice on their website and the advice I got from their customer service.
The fee for providing this Tax Voucher is EUR 50 + VAT, per event (instrument) per year, so for me, as I have spread my investments over a lot of stocks, unfortunately, the accumulated fees would be more than the total tax due back. This is consistent with fees from other brokers.

If Degiro needs to charge fees for these reports, then having a single fee per year, per country would seem to be a fairer way for small retail investors. For me, what ive taken from the process is that to be able to claim DWT back with a broker like Degiro, its probably better to just stick with one 1 German stock for Dividends in any one year, so that there is only a single fee of EUR50+Vat.
 
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