INTM330020 - Double Taxation applications and claims - Introduction: Scope of this guidance
What is covered by this guidance
This material is written mainly for officers working in
- Specialist Personal Tax, PT International and
- The Large Business Service Double Tax Treaty team,
but may also be used by other HMRC officers.
INTM330000 to INTM369999 provide guidance on double taxation with respect to claims and applications.
Relief from UK income tax to a non-resident under a double taxation agreement is not automatic. A resident of a country with which the UK has an agreement may be able to get relief from UK income tax on the following types of UK source income, by making a claim to the appropriate office:
- interest
- royalties
- pensions and annuities
- dividends
- ‘other income’ (that is, income that is not specifically dealt with in any other Articles in the particular treaty).
Double taxation relief customers include
- individuals
- corporations
- partnerships, pension funds, trusts etc.
resident in countries with which the UK has a double taxation agreement.
Use the guidance in this manual to help you decide whether relief under a double taxation agreement is due. There is guidance on specific provisions of each of the UK’s DT agreements in this manual. You may also need to refer to the text of the appropriate agreement (see INTM157020).
Other aspects of work covered by this manual include claims from non-residents under UK domestic legislation and supranational agreements.
Further guidance on double taxation work with respect to claims and applications will be added to the International Manual over time.
Exchange of Information
The UK has certain international obligations to exchange information about rulings issued by HMRC. These obligations arise out of bilateral treaties, the EU Directive on Administrative Cooperation in the field of Taxation (the DAC), and Action 5 of the OECD’s Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) project. Relief at source on future interest and royalty payments caught by DAC is an agreement made between a tax authority and a customer, upon which the customer can rely. This makes it a “ruling” for international taxation purposes, meaning it is very likely to be exchangeable with another jurisdiction:
- automatically, under BEPS Action 5;
- automatically, under the DAC; or
- spontaneously, where it would be foreseeably relevant to advise another jurisdiction.
For more information, including whether, when, and how to exchange such rulings: please consult IEIM500000+ onwards. There may be information that you will need to collect from the customer, so it is important that you review the guidance on sharing rulings before you reply.