Q&A about self-certification and tax liability abroad

If you have received a self-certification form regarding your tax liability from us, you may have some questions. Here are a number of questions and answers about the certification form, tax liability abroad and the underlying legislation.
  • Being fully tax liable in a country means that you are liable to pay tax in that country on your total income in Denmark and abroad. Generally, you are fully tax liable in the country in which you live or stay for more than 183 days out of a 12-month period – this is also called tax residency.
  • On the certification form, you need to list only the countries in which you are fully tax liable – and not those in which you have limited tax liability. You are subject to limited tax liability in a country if, for example, you have an income in the country but do not live there. In that case, you will be fully tax liable in another country. 
  • Your tax liability does not depend on whether you actually have an income. Equally, it does not always mean that you actually have to pay tax. Irrespective of whether or not you have an income, you are considered to be fully tax liable in the country in which you live.
  • If you own a property in a country but do not live there permanently, you are usually subject only to limited tax liability in that country and have to pay only land tax there. As a general rule, you should therefore not list the country on the certification form. However, the tax rules vary from one country to another, so you need to contact a tax adviser or the local tax authorities to find out what applies to you.
  • No, you need to indicate only the countries in which you are fully tax liable – that is, the countries in which you must pay tax on your total income.
  • Once you have completed the certification form, we can report correct information about where you are fully tax liable. If you indicate that you are fully tax liable outside Denmark, we are obliged to pass this information on to the tax authorities along with information about your credit balances and income in accounts subject to the reporting requirement, including dividends, interest income and sales proceeds.
  • If we do not receive the completed self-certification form from you, we will have to rely on our existing information and report to the Danish tax authorities that you may be liable to pay tax outside Denmark.
  • If we have reason to believe that you have not completed the certification form correctly, we will contact you to clarify the matter.
  • If you indicate that you are fully tax liable outside Denmark, we are obliged to pass this information on to the tax authorities along with information about your credit balances and income in accounts subject to the reporting requirement, including dividends, interest income and income from sales.
  • If you have previously informed us that you were fully tax liable abroad, but this is no longer the case, you must send a self-certification form to us specifying the country in which you are now fully tax liable.
  • TIN is an abbreviation for ‘Taxpayer Identification Number’, and is a foreign taxpayer identification number. If, for example, you are fully tax liable in the US and need a US taxpayer identification number, you must contact the US tax authorities, the Internal Revenue Service.
  • There are two types of rules underlying the requirement for self-certification. These are the FATCA (Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act) rules, which are designed to prevent tax evasion in the US, and the CRS (Common Reporting Standard) rules, which aim to prevent international tax evasion. 
  • All banks in Denmark must comply with the rules. The banks have different methods of obtaining information from customers to clarify tax liability, and the self-certification form may therefore differ from one bank to another. We ask our customers where they are fully tax liable and ask them to provide their foreign taxpayer identification number (TIN).

    Every year in May, we report customers who have been identified as being liable to pay tax outside Denmark to the tax authorities. The same applies to customers who do not complete the self-certification form and about whom we have information that causes us to believe that they may be liable to pay tax outside Denmark. Our reporting includes information on credit balances and income in accounts covered by the reporting requirement.
  • You must complete the certification form so we can report correct information about where you are fully tax liable. We are obliged to provide this information to the tax authorities along with information about your credit balances and income in accounts subject to the reporting requirement, including dividends, interest income and sales proceeds.
  • Minors are not exempt from reporting, so if your child is fully tax liable abroad and is a customer with us, we need the same information about your child as we need about you.

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