European Savings Tax (EST)

The EU savings taxation regime has been in effect since 1 July 2005. It stipulates that cross-border interest payments made to individuals resident in the EU are subject to a tax retention or an automatic exchange of information. This also includes distributions made by investment funds which invest more than 15% of fund assets in fixed-income paper, and redemptions/sales of investment funds which invest more than 40% of fund assets (from 1 January 2011: 25%) in affected fixed-income paper, as defined in the Directive.