What is withholding tax reclaim?

When a foreign company pays you dividends or interest, the source country deducts withholding tax before the payment reaches you. If your country has a double tax treaty with that source country, you may have been overtaxed and are entitled to reclaim the excess. TaxReclaim automates the calculation and generates the official reclaim forms for 20+ countries.

What's the difference between a Foreign Tax Credit and a Withholding Tax Refund?

Foreign Tax Credit (FTC) is claimed on your current year tax return with your home country to reduce domestic tax liability. Withholding Tax Refund is claimed from the source country to recover excess tax above treaty rates, often for 3-5 years of past dividends. You can use both methods: claim the treaty-rate portion as a credit at home, and file for the excess directly with the source country.

How do I claim a Foreign Tax Credit on my annual tax return?

Report gross foreign income (before tax) on your return, then enter foreign tax paid in the double taxation relief section. The credit is capped at the treaty rate (typically 15%) and reduces your domestic tax dollar-for-dollar up to your domestic tax on that income. Example: €1,000 US dividends with €150 withheld - report €1,000 income and claim €150 credit.

How do I claim a Withholding Tax Refund for excess tax?

When source countries withhold more than treaty rates, file for refunds directly. Gather dividend certificates and tax residency proof, calculate excess (e.g., 35% withheld - 15% treaty = 20% refund), file country-specific forms (Form 210 for Spain, R-V1 for Germany, Form 5001 for France), and wait 3-12 months for processing. Most countries allow claims for 3-5 years retroactively.

Can I claim both a Foreign Tax Credit AND a Withholding Tax Refund?

Yes, and you often should! They address different parts of withheld tax. Claim the treaty-compliant portion (e.g., 15%) as Foreign Tax Credit on your annual return, and file for the excess above treaty rate as a WHT Refund with the source country. Example: Switzerland withholds 35% - claim 15% credit at home, reclaim 20% excess from Swiss tax authority.

How do I reclaim Swiss withholding tax on dividends?

Switzerland withholds 35% on dividends paid to foreign investors. If your country has a tax treaty with Switzerland, you can reclaim the excess above the treaty rate (typically 15%). Residents of Spain, Italy, Portugal and other Southern European countries use Form 60; other residents use Form 70. TaxReclaim determines the correct form automatically and generates it as a ready-to-submit PDF.

Which countries can I reclaim withholding tax from?

TaxReclaim supports reclaims from Switzerland, France, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Norway, the USA, the UK, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Luxembourg, Ireland and more — 20+ countries in total.

Is it common for people to not reclaim their eligible taxes?

Yes, billions go unclaimed annually. The IRS reports over $1 billion in unclaimed refunds yearly. Globally, $200 billion in withholding tax is deducted with 25% left unclaimed. In the EU, €8.4 billion per year goes unclaimed. Common reasons include complexity, lack of awareness, and time burden. This creates a 0.5%+ annual drag on portfolio performance.

How much can I potentially recover?

Recovery amounts yield 0.5%+ annual portfolio performance boost. Common recovery rates: Switzerland 35% withheld vs 15% treaty = 20% refund; Germany 26.375% vs 15% = 11.375% refund; France 25% vs 15% = 10% refund; USA 30% vs 15% = 15% refund. On €10,000 annual dividends with 12% average excess, recover €1,200/year or €6,000+ for 5 years retroactively.

What documents do I need?

Typically you'll need: dividend/interest certificates from your broker showing gross amounts and tax withheld, proof of tax residency (certificate from your local tax authority), original tax receipts, identification (passport or national tax ID), and bank account details (IBAN for EU claims). Most brokers can provide annual tax statements that consolidate all this information.

How long does the process take?

Foreign Tax Credits are processed with your annual tax return. WHT Refunds vary by country: Germany 6-12 months, France 3-6 months, Switzerland 6-9 months, USA 6-12 months, Norway 3-6 months. Refunds are sent directly to your bank account once approved.

What are the deadlines for reclaiming withholding tax refunds?

Deadlines vary by country. Most allow 3-5 years from the dividend or interest payment date. Germany: 4 years. France: December 31 of second year following payment. Switzerland: 3 years. Norway: 5 years. USA: 3 years. Important exception: the Netherlands only allows 2 years. Missed deadlines mean permanent loss of your refund.

Is my financial data secure?

Yes. We use 256-bit SSL encryption, the same security standard used by major banks. All data is stored in EU-based data centers, and we are fully GDPR compliant. We never sell or share your personal data with third parties, and you can request complete data deletion at any time.

Do I need to be a tax professional to use TaxReclaim?

No. TaxReclaim is designed for individual investors. Enter your dividend or interest payment details, select the source country, and the platform calculates your refund entitlement and generates the completed official form. The whole process takes around 3 minutes.

Security

Information tool, not tax advice.

At a glance

No broker credentials

We do not connect to brokers, do not ask for trading-account passwords, and do not store any credentials beyond your sign-in email.

Row Level Security

Every database query is scoped to your user identity. You cannot read another user's claims; we cannot accidentally leak across users.

Stripe-handled payments

Card numbers and bank details never touch our servers. Stripe is PCI DSS Level 1 certified and handles payment storage and processing.

Magic-link auth

No passwords to phish. Sign-in is a one-time link emailed to the address you control; sessions expire after 30 minutes of inactivity.

Infrastructure

Layer	Provider	Compliance posture
Frontend hosting	Vercel	SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001
Database & auth	Supabase (PostgreSQL)	SOC 2 Type II, GDPR-compliant DPA
Payments	Stripe	PCI DSS Level 1, SOC 1 / 2
Error monitoring	Sentry	PII scrubbed at the SDK boundary

Reporting a vulnerability

We respond to good-faith security reports promptly. Please email security@taxreclaim.eu; do not exploit, exfiltrate, or destroy data while testing.

Row-Level Security (RLS)

Every database row is scoped to its owner. Each query is filtered by auth.uid() at the database level — application code cannot bypass it. A misconfigured query that asks for "all rows in claims" returns only the rows belonging to the signed-in user. This is enforced by PostgreSQL, not by application logic.

Broker credentials

Tax Return Buddy stores no broker credentials and connects to no broker APIs. Users enter dividend and interest amounts manually or paste them from broker statements. No screen-scraping, no API tokens, no OAuth connections to brokerage accounts.

GDPR posture

Tax Return Buddy is operated for the EU market. Users have, at any time:

Export: a JSON download of profile data and saved claims, available from Billing settings. See Privacy for the data categories covered.
Deletion: account deletion from Settings begins a 14-day grace period during which the account can be restored from the confirmation link. After 14 days, all rows linked to the account are removed and the Supabase auth identity is hard-deleted.
Stripe subscription: deletion sets the Stripe subscription to cancel at the end of the current billing period (aligns with EU 14-day right-of-withdrawal already in place since Phase 02).

Hosting is on Vercel (frontend) and on a backend instance behind Cloudflare. Sensitive data is stored in Supabase EU regions.