Q Securities, Malta’s latest and leading depositary, has appointed WTax, a world-leading withholding tax (WHT) recovery specialist, to provide its clients with digitised WHT solutions across global investment markets. 

Foreign WHT is a form of indirect tax levied on non-domestic investment income and is paid to the government of the overseas jurisdiction. “If a Maltese fund holds shares, for instance, in a Swiss-domiciled company, 35% of the income will be deducted and paid to the Swiss Tax Authority before the dividend is distributed. A proportion of this deducted tax can be reclaimed through various reclaim mechanisms,” said Liam Ilić, WTax’s Regional Sales Director.

WHT is paid by the payer of the income rather than the recipient and is accordingly ‘deducted at source’. Foreign governments legislate at what rate and how WHT is levied as well as the procedural requirements to seek relief. 

In practice, the WHT that is eligible to be recovered is often unclaimed due to the complexity of the claim process. Inaccurate or incomplete supporting tax documentation, time-sensitive deadlines, complexities across foreign tax authority procedural requirements and regulations, high volumes of tax authority queries, as well as a lack of agile systems and data collection processes contribute to investors suffering higher tax rates than their eligibility dictates.

As an independent tax company, WTax is uniquely positioned to provide in-depth guidance on tax relief opportunities and assume the role of tax administration tasks on behalf of end investors. “Together with our tax-technology roots and automation-first ethos, WTax and Q Securities form a powerful partnership that provides end investors – in the fast-expanding Maltese market – with a modern and quality-driven tax solution,” said Daniel Ginsburg, CEO of WTax.

WTax will provide services to grant Q Securities and its clients access to advanced WHT relief processes and capabilities, including support for Relief at Source applications. The agreement will allow Q Securities clients to benefit from a wide market spectrum of tax technical expertise and extensive reclaim coverage, including complex tax relief support. Such support includes reclaims on non-cash corporate actions and cross-border events delivered through agile, digitised tax documentation collection and processing protocols. 

Q Securities, Malta’s latest and leading depositary, has appointed WTax, a WHT recovery specialist.

WTax’s global presence means local market connectivity and knowledge spearheads its client servicing approach. “Given the growth trajectory of the Maltese market, WTax is a key ally for Maltese-domiciled investment funds, where we already provide tax relief services to over 30 Maltese investment funds. Through the partnership with Q Securities, we expect significant growth in the number of funds we support to achieve maximised end-investment yields,” further adds Liam. 

Transparency, efficiency, and risk mitigation are at the forefront of the combined operations. The companies also highlight their speed to market and proactive identification of upcoming tax and regulatory changes, which contribute to the enhancement of investors’ investment tax recovery yields.

“We’re excited to launch the partnership with WTax as their capabilities fit well with our strategy to provide top-quality depositary services using our extensive knowledge gained in Luxembourg and Poland and expand our offering for Maltese clients,” said Filip Suchta, Q Securities Malta Branch Manager. “We believe our joint offering will allow our clients to vastly increase the effectiveness of their investments to benefit their investors,” he added.

About WTax

WTax is a specialist indirect tax recovery firm with global reclaim capabilities, an extensive network and infrastructure that provides specialist, fully outsourced foreign withholding tax recovery solutions in over 35 global investment markets. WTax’s investment in and vision of an end-to end digitised tax process, coupled with two decades of world-leading tax technical knowledge, allows their clients to be free of the administrative and complex tax reclaim process.

About Q Securities

Q Securities is an independent MiFID investment firm and a brokerage house with offices in Luxembourg, Malta and Poland. For the past decade, it’s been a preferred partner for capital markets professionals like investment funds, asset managers and other players in the investment ecosystem. 

Q Securities is approved by the financial regulators in Luxembourg (CSSF), Malta (MFSA) and Poland (KNF) to offer depositary services for alternative investment funds, including custody of financial instruments. On the Polish market, the licence additionally covers equity and debt financing, securities safekeeping, and brokerage transactions services for a variety of instruments.