Irish Withholding Tax
The Irish Revenue Service requires Interactive Brokers (IBKR) to collect withholding tax on interest earned in Ireland. This deduction is at a rate of 20% and should be deducted from the interest payments on your account. This tax can be reduced or abolished if your tax residence has a double taxation treaty (DTA) with Ireland.
What is Irish Withholding Tax?
For retail customers in the EU (excluding Ireland) or if you are a non-resident of Ireland but are a tax resident of a country with a Double Taxation Treaty (DTA) with Ireland, please complete Form 8-3-6. In addition to providing your details, you must have the form completed by the tax authorities in the country where you are tax resident.
Please note that the withholding tax rate depends on the DTA between Ireland and your country of tax residence, which can be found on the Irish Revenue Service website:
https://www.revenue.ie/en/tax-professionals/tax-agreements/rates/index.aspx
The withholding tax does not apply to corporate brokerage accounts if they are located in member states of the European Union (excluding Ireland) or companies in countries that have a double taxation treaty (DTA) with Ireland.
Form 8-3-6
You must complete the Form 8-3-6 with the following information:
- Name
- Address
- Tax reference number of the country where you live
- The country where you are tax resident
- The rate of withholding tax between the country of tax residence and Ireland (see below)
- Signature
- Date
- Capacity of Signatory: fill in Account Holder
Send the Form 8-3-6
After you have completed the form, physically send it to your local tax office.
Signed and stamped
Once you have received the completed form or residency statement from the IRS, you can upload a PDF or JPEG copy of the fully signed form (and residency statement if forgiven) to the Client Portal. Simply click on the bell icon in the top right corner of the page and select ‘Ireland Interest Tax Form 8-3-6 for XXXX.'”
Countries in the European Economic Area (EEA) with 0% withholding tax
Countries in the EEA with more than 0% withholding tax
Other countries with Irish double taxation agreement
(countries marked with an asterisk* have a 0% tax rate in all cases)
If you are resident outside the EEA, please use this form. If the withholding tax rate is 0% please use this form.
If your tax residence is not listed in the list of countries above, please contact us at: info@lynx.nl
LYNX is not responsible for the information on this page and is not legally obligated to provide this information. LYNX is merely acting as a messenger for this process, which is an IB process and responsibility. All information we provide is information created by IB. The information provided is derived from the IB web page and translated from English to the local language by LYNX. In case of discrepancies, the English version prevails, which you can find here. The information is also subject to change at any time and LYNX has no influence on any changes.
FAQ
Irish Withholding Tax applies to credit interest received on uninvested cash balances and on short credit interest where you have borrowed shares through IBIE.
Thus, Irish Withholding Tax does not apply to interest you receive under, for example, the Stock Yield Enhancement Program or interest you earn from bond interest payments.
Irish Withholding Tax is charged in the same currency as the currency in which you receive credit interest. Next to this, you can also check your Transaction History or a full Activity Statement.
You can find the Irish Withholding Tax withheld under Cash Movements within LYNX+. This also falls under the Taxes category. You can check the instructions on this page for exactly where to find this. You can also view this in your account statements from the 3rd (working) day of the month, when credit interest is also paid out.
Each joint account holder must complete their own documentation. This means each account holder must complete a separate Form 8-3-6 and (if relevant) each account holder must provide a separate residency statement.
A completed Form 8-3-6 remains valid for 5 years unless there is a change in your circumstances. This is true even if you provided IBIE with a certificate of residence instead of having your Form 8-3-6 stamped by the IRS. So you only need to resubmit this document every 5 years. If there is a material change in your circumstances from a tax perspective, you must notify IBIE immediately and submit an updated Form 8-3-6.
For example, if you move your tax residency from one country to another, you must notify IBIE and provide IBIE with a Form 8-3-6 signed by the new local tax authority.
If you have asked the Inland Revenue to sign the Form 8-3-6 and they have refused to do so, you can instead file a Statement of Residence from the Inland Revenue along with a completed Form 8-3-6 that has not been signed and stamped by the Inland Revenue. The Irish Inland Revenue introduced this option only in January 2023, after IBIE was made aware of the difficulties clients were having in completing the form.
To be acceptable, the residence declaration must explicitly state that you are tax resident in your country in accordance with the relevant provision of the double taxation treaty between Ireland and your tax residence.
Yes, if you are not subject to Irish Withholding Tax, or are subject to a reduced rate under a double tax treaty between Ireland and your country of residence, you are entitled to a refund of withholding tax paid in excess of the rate set out in the Double Taxation Treaty (DTT).
If you want to reclaim withheld tax, please follow the instructions below:
- If you are eligible to reclaim tax in the previous year, you will have received the R185 Form at the end of January in the current year. You can find it in the Client Portal > Performance & Reports > Statements > Tax Forms section and it should also be sent to you via e-mail. Download this form and save it somewhere you can access it later.
- After this, download and fill in the Form IC7. You can find the form at this link: Form IC7- Claim Form to be completed by non-resident claimant (revenue.ie). Please fill in the form according to the instructions in the sample form that was provided below:
Note: If your tax authority will not stamp the form, the Irish Revenue may accept a certificate of tax residence, which can be attached instead of having that section completed.
- After completing this, post the following to International Claims Section, Office of the Revenue Commissioners, Nenagh, Co Tipperary, E45 T611, Ireland or e-mail them to intclaims@revenue.ie:
- Form IC7. You can download this here: Form IC7- Claim Form to be completed by non-resident claimant (revenue.ie)
- Form R185. You can find this form in the Client Portal > Performance & Reports > Statements > Tax Forms section
- The IBIE Customer Agreement or link to it in an e-mail: https://www.interactivebrokers.ie/en/accounts/forms-and-disclosures-client-agreements.php
- Your certificate of tax residence (if required)
Frequently Asked Questions
- Why can I not find the Form R185?
If there were no withheld taxes on receivable interest , the R185 Form will not be shown in the Tax Forms section of the Statements menu in the Client Portal.
- What is the Time Limit for reclaiming the IWHT?
Claims may only be made within 4 years following the end of the calendar year in which the tax was deducted.
- How will Repayments be made?
All repayments will be made electronically to a specified Bank Account as mentioned in the section Payment Details in the IC7 Form.
- How do I know what amount I can reclaim?
The amount of Tax Withheld will be calculated in the R185 Form, that you can find in the Tax section of the Statements menu. All the withheld taxes eligible for reclaim will be shown in the base currency.
For example, if you are eligible to reclaim withheld taxes on USD interests, the reclaimable amount will be shown in EUR (base currency).
If there were no withheld taxes on receivable interest, the R185 Form will not be shown in the Tax Forms section.