EU withholding tax is changing

Stay Ahead of FASTER

Name: Faster New
Brand: RAQUEST

The FASTER Directive will reshape the fragmented EU withholding tax landscape by streamlining procedures, harmonizing tax processes among member states, and supporting smoother cross-border investment within the European Union.

Early Preparation is key

FASTER Marks a New Era in Withholding Tax

The FASTER Directive brings substantial change, with major digital transformation challenges for financial institutions, tax authorities, and tax technology providers. Although implementation will evolve through 2028, critical trends and requirements are already taking shape – making early preparation essential.

UPDATE

FASTER Reporting XSD in Consultation Phase

The European Commission is currently analyzing all feedback received on the XSD schema. By mid-May, the first Implementing Act is expected to be adopted by the FASTER Committee. Next steps:

EU Commission analyzing all feedback received
EU Commission will finalize Implementing Act based on feedback
Launch of the consultation – End of March
Feedback received and analysis done – 4 weeks
First Implementing Act will be adopted by the FASTER Committee – Estimated mid-May
Work on the eTRC and EU Portal – April; comments will be provided after summer holidays.

WHITEPAPER

New Survey: How Prepared Is the Financial Industry?

Get the full survey results and discover challenges, opportunities and practical approaches.

FASTER

Key Facts You Need to Know

The European Commission plans to introduce a standardized EU-wide system of withholding tax relief, accompanied by an exchange-of-information and cooperation mechanism among tax administrations.

Objective

FASTER requires adopting Member States to transpose the directive into national legislation by December 31, 2028 and to implement the directive from January 1, 2030.

Timing

Every EU market will have to design and build an electronic tax residency certificate (eTRC) system capable of issuing a digital certificate of tax residency with three days to individuals or entities. ETRCs will be valid for the year in which they are issued and will need to be renewed.

Documentation & due diligence

Under FASTER, adopting Member States must establish a national register of certified financial intermediaries (CFIs) who are authorized to act as withholding agents. To simplify the registration procedure, a European Certified Financial Intermediary Portal will be created and act as central dedicated website, where the national registers will be accessible.

CFI Registers

Adopting Member States will need to decide whether reporting is indirect along the custody chain or direct to the tax administration. Under FASTER, every CFI granting tax relief to an investor must report dividend distributions either directly to the source country’s tax administrations or indirectly along the custody chain.

Direct and Indirect Reporting

Get Started

FASTER Impact Assessment Service

RAQUEST supports financial institutions, custodians, and investment platforms in assessing their organizational, process, and technology readiness for implementing the EU FASTER Directive. Our impact assessment identifies gaps, risks, and priority action areas across the following dimensions.

Compliance Readiness

CFI obligations, reporting, registration

> Understanding regulations and implementing them within the organization

Process Maturity

Workflows for withholding tax relief, documentation, data quality

> Identifying gaps in processes and systems

Technical Implementation

eTRC processing, interfaces, automation

> Basis for IT and organizational decision-making

Governance & Control

Responsibilities, internal controls, and auditability

> Prioritized actions for adaptation and transformation

Enabling Compliance through Technology

Managing FASTER Complexity with RAQUEST

Even though FASTER defines a common standard, its implementation across member states will remain highly heterogeneous. The FASTER Product Suite is designed to address this complexity, offering the flexibility to adapt to varying technical and procedural requirements imposed by local authorities. At the same time, within the financial institution, RAQUEST ensures clear and straightforward implementation through harmonized technology, processes, and interfaces.

FASTER Module

for Withholding Tax Processing

FASTER Module

for Withholding Tax Reporting

FASTER Module

for Withholding Tax Data Transfer

FASTER Module

for eTRC

RAQUEST combines Technology AND Tax

Your Strategic Implementation Partner for FASTER

From the beginning, RAQUEST has been engaged in the elaboration of requirements
and specifications of the EU FASTER Directive

Flexibility to choose between an end-to-end solution and modular components to fit the existing IT landscape

Combining reporting functionalities with proven withholding tax processing to leverage existing capabilities such as MiKaDiv

Compliance control and monitoring functions to reduce workload caused by tax authority inquiries

Customer-centered support and knowledge exchange

Automatic gathering and tracking of feedback from tax authorities

Encrypted transfer and firewall security

RAQUEST AND STTI

Rely on Market-Proven Solutions

Our FASTER solution build on the proven products RAQUEST and STTI. RAQUEST integrates data from upstream systems and processes it in a standardized and audit-proof manner. STTI supports the digital interfaces of the tax authorities of member states and intermediaries in the payment chain.