In a follow-up to an April letter discussing COVID-19-related challenges regarding tax withholding, the American Bankers Association, the International Banking Federation and several other trade associations wrote to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and the European Commission seeking additional relief for administering tax regulations for cross-border transactions.
The groups provided specific examples of the challenges caused by the pandemic, including difficulties with issuing original certificates of tax residency and stamping relevant tax relief forms; difficulties moving original physical tax forms and documents; disruption of postal services; the need to resend applications due to lack of acknowledgement of receipt by tax authorities; and the inability to obtain “wet” signatures or notarization for tax documents. The letter also reiterated the call for various types of regulatory relief to address challenges in moving and executing documentation to meet tax withholding requirements.
