How do I fill in an A/114 form to apply for reduced Israel dividend tax?

16th Mar '17 by David Cheong

57 comments 22003 reads

Hi,

I own some Plus500 shares which went ex-dividend on 3 March. I am trying to apply for a reduced tax rate on the dividends, which involves filling in the form A/114 and sending it to the Israeli Tax Authorities. However, I have no idea how to fill in certain portions like :

For Part F, 'Documentation':
- What Documentation do I need to attach alongside the form A/114?

PART H: CERTIFICATION OF FOREIGN INCOME TAX AUTHORITY (This part shall be completed and signed by the Income Tax Authorities of the recipient’s place of residence)
- how do i get the UK tax authorities to fill this part in and sign it off ?

This is my first time filling in this form and I am unsure what the process is like. Do i just fill in the form, attach whatever documentation and send it off straight to the Israeli Tax Authorities?

If anyone has done so before please let me know! I will greatly appreciate any help.

Thanks.

David

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abtan

17th Mar '17

Hi David

These are the items you'll need for your £PLUS refund:

Completed form "CLAIM FOR REDUCED RATE OF WITHHOLDING TAX IN ISRAEL ON DIVIDEND PAYMENTS TO A NON ISRAELI TAX RESIDENT" (part of this needs to be signed by HMRC)
Completed form "CLAIM FOR REDUCED RATE OF WITHHOLDING TAX PLUS 500 LTD." (easy to complete by yourself)
Letter from your broker indicating #shares held on the ex-div date

Here's a rundown of how it all works:

A company called ESOP has been appointed by Plus500 to manage the process.

You can contact them by emailing Moshi at esop-helpdesk@esop.co.il.

They're sometimes a little slow at responding, so if you need a faster response cc the following email address: ir@plus500.com

ESOP will give you 2 forms to fill out (1. and 2. mentioned above).

"CLAIM FOR REDUCED RATE OF WITHHOLDING TAX IN ISRAEL ON DIVIDEND PAYMENTS TO A NON ISRAELI TAX RESIDENT" - You can fill out Part A of this form by yourself.

Some notes for Part A (these were for my personal circumstances i.e shares bought individually through my HL ISA account:

You only need to fill out personal details (no reference to a legal entity required)
Tel# of authorized signatory is the same as your personal phone number
The amount under Details of Income Received can be left blank

Once Part A is complete, it needs to be sent alongside Part B of the same form (which refers to the "CERTIFICATION OF FOREIGN INCOME TAX AUTHORITY" you mentioned) to the following HMRC address:

PAYE & Self Assessment.
HMRC.
BX9 1AS

It's probably best to send through a short cover letter as well.

HMRC take a long time to get back to you so I would get this sent off ASAP. If you don't get Part B back in time then you don't get your refund. HMRC took a long time at the last div so I missed the deadline, but I've noticed that the dividend payment date is quite far off this time so you should be okay if sending off soon.

Get in touch with your broker. I hold my shares through HL, who sent out a letter detailing that I was a shareholder on the ex-div date and how may shares I owned at the time. HL sent this to me within a matter of days of me emailing them.

Get all x3 documents sent to Moshi on the email address above. He'll let you know what the deadline is.

I hope the above helps.

If you (or anyone else) need anything else feel free to drop me a line here or direct message me.

Cheers

Abtan

David Cheong

Cheers for the walk through! Some follow up questions:

i) Can I confirm emailing the documents to Moshi is enough ? (i.e. we don't need to send the documents by mail)

ii) Do we have to go through this entire process every time Plus500 issues a dividend?

Thanks,
David

Hey David

Quick disclaimer - I've only been through the process once and I missed the deadline!
Having said that I'm fairly certain the answers to your questions are:

i) Emailing the documents is enough
ii) You'll need to get part B signed by HMRC every tax year, and a letter from your broker for every dividend.

If I'm honest, now that I'm doing this a 2nd time it has been much simpler.
It probably took me <20 minutes to send an email to HL and prep a copy of the same letter I sent to HMRC last year.
Once I receive the required paperwork from 3rd parties, I can't imagine spending more than another 10-20 minutes getting documents ready to send to ESOP.

So for me, it's annoying, but not too bad to get that extra 10% back.

All the best
Abs

20th Mar '17

Hey Abs,

Thanks so much for the info and help! I contacted Moshe from ESOP and he has provided me with the two forms.

The form 'Claim for reduced rate of Withholding tax PLUS500 LTD' stated that I should also attach the following forms : '*W-9 / W-8BEN / W-8BEN-E / W-8IMY / W-8EXP / W-8ECI'. Did you have to do this last year/are you aware of this ?

Best regards,
David Cheong

lightningtiger

I tried last year filling out the forms, but after considering what was required with personal information that could put your personal identity like passports, etc at risk decided not to bother risking it in the end and paying the 15% tax requirement, which still left a healthy dividend payment.
I will have another go and see exactly what the requirements are for ID.
Has anybody successfully actually got the Israeli tax back ?

Last year I didn't send any of those forms.

This year Moshi specifically hasn't asked me for them. In his words:

"We will only need the ITA form and evidence of holdings + payment"

So I would tentatively say that they aren't required.

If I hear otherwise I will post here.

Agreed - it's scary how much information one needs to provide

22nd Mar '17

thanks Abs,

Im guessing the evidence of 'payment' will only be available after the dividend gets paid into our accounts? (3rd july onwards) that means that we will only have a 4 day window to get all the evidence over to Moshi in time.

Thanks.

Regards,
David

Hi David

I recall there being some leeway on the time to provide proof of payment last year ie more than 4 days.
One to confirm with Moshi once everything else is ready and sent over to him.

Cheers

29th Mar '17

Can't ge hold oft Moshi at ESOP.. I assume Moshi is a contact name. Have now got conformation of holdings from my broker.
Can you please confirm the e-mail address for ESOP.

Email address is esop-helpdesk@esop.co.il

Moshi is sometimes a little slow at responding, so if you need a faster response cc the following email address: ir@plus500.com. That always seemed to work.

Thanks abtan , I will give it another try.

1st Apr '17

Success at last. After checking LLoyds Bank with the security issues, and they have never heard of ESOP in their dealing department, which I found surprising, was re assured by Hargreaves Lansdown that the security with ESOP was fine.
Next step was HMRC which I deal with at the same address, but decided to contact my local HMRC in Reading & made a phone call for an appointment only to find myself talking to someone in Glasgow! Then I was transferred to another person in the north of England because I noticed the accent from Scotland had disappeared.I was informed that the Reading HMRC office had closed, but she could make an appointment in Reading town hall offices where HMRC rents a room there!
So I asked to make sure that they could have a HMRC stamp available at the appointment for me and that I did not have to use the other HMRC office at BX9 1AS to do the business with but use the one locally which was OK.
So if anybody else is considering doing this it can be sorted out using their local tax office.The phone call will probably go on a merry go round from any where in the country and be eventually sorted out for you.

6th Apr '17

A phone call today from HMRC Euston London office confirming the appointment in Reading would not be able to sort the paperwork out as it is only processed from HMRC at BX( 1AS so I would have to cancel the appointment & contact HMRC at BX1 1AS. should reply by the 16th of May 2017 If I write to them today.
I was given an e-mail address and was told it could be sorted out on line. I have had no such luck.
The e-mail address given to me is https://online.hmrc.gov.uk/shortforms/form/PTCertOfRes and they should reply by 20th April 2017!
I am not impressed at all with them.

Sorry to hear that.

FWIW I've received my signed paperwork from HMRC.
It took about 3 weeks so if you send it off now you should receive it back in time.

No harm emailing afterwards as well, but if you're keen on getting the tax rebate, I'd probably get the paperwork sent off in case you don't hear back by email..

GL!

7th Apr '17

Thanks for the mission accomplished abtan. That is encouraging.
I must admit I do feel frustrated that it all takes so long to get this sorted out, especially when we have all the latest tech gadgets to communicate with around the world with. Be it a phone, i pad, computer or video call and it takes 3 weeks to get this sorted! We are in 2017 for goodness sake.
We can communicate with our brothers and sisters and friends instantly in Australia, KL ,India, or anywhere in the world. Quite often it is, here is what we had in Australia for dinner today and here is the photos/video from the party.I'll text you the ingredients.

Thanks for the update ; i think i will be posting the documents instead of emailing it to hrmc.

How do I fill in an A/114 form to apply for reduced Israel dividend tax?

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David Cheong

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