Finastra is teaming up with WTax, a world leader in withholding tax recovery services, to support asset management firms in recovering withholding tax on behalf of their clients. By introducing Fusion Invest customers to WTax, Finastra will help portfolio and investment managers around the world to deliver net savings for end clients, recovering tax that has been levied on income from securities investments in territories where they are non-resident.

“Finastra’s work with WTax benefits all parties and is a great addition to our Fusion Invest value proposition,” said Younes Guemouri, Senior Vice President and Managing Director Fusion Invest, Finastra. “By outsourcing the withholding tax recovery process, asset managers are freed up from the onerous and complex administrative process involved in reclaiming tax across multiple jurisdictions for clients. Since WTax operates on a ‘no win, no fee’ model, it only charges on the basis of successful reclaims, delivering value to asset managers and end customers alike.”

The scale of withholding tax that’s unclaimed is significant. In 2017, the European Commission reported an estimated cost of unclaimed withholding tax recovery of EUR 8.4 billion per year in the EU alone. Often the beneficiaries of the dividends and interest being taxed are institutional investors. The withholding tax can reduce their return on investment and can add up to as much as 35% of the gross income amount. The process of recovering the tax is complex – involving knowledge of double taxation agreements, domestic legislative provisions and precedents.

Available globally, WTax’s ISO 27001 compliant technology makes claims more efficient to process and more transparent for clients. Automating the claims process is faster and more effective and eliminates human error.

"WTax is thrilled to collaborate with Finastra and join the Fusion Invest ecosystem,” said Daniel Ginsburg, CEO of WTax. "Fusion Invest users can be assured that WTax will streamline the process for recovering withholding tax globally since we assign specialist teams who understand the unique complexity of each jurisdiction to ensure maximum recovery in the shortest possible time.”