Understanding tax residency and withholding tax (WHT)

Every year we do a review of all customers to determine if you’ve indicated that you’re a tax resident of a foreign jurisdiction. You could have indicated this through information provided during the account opening process, or by updating your personal contact information throughout the year.

We confirm your tax residency under the:

1. Common Reporting Standard (CRS), a single global standard for the collection, reporting and exchange of financial account information on foreign tax residents, and
2. Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), US legislation requiring us to confirm your client’s status as a US or non-US citizen or tax resident.

As part of our ongoing CRS and FATCA reporting obligations, we may contact you because:

• we’ve found foreign indicia (evidence of foreign tax residency) on file and require confirmation of tax residency from you. Foreign indicia may be:
  • a foreign address or contact details
  • a foreign passport, driver’s licence or citizenship paper
    
  • a Tax Bill (Notice of Assessment from a foreign tax office)
• you have previously indicated that you have a foreign TIN but have not supplied it to us, or
• you’re the primary contact for an entity that needs to self-certify for the first time, regardless of whether evidence of foreign tax residency has been found on file.

Depending on your account structure, to update your tax residency, we’ll need you to return a declaration form listed below. You can also find these forms here.

The email or letter you received from us will tell you which of the below scenarios is applicable to you.

If you’re not a foreign tax resident, you’ll also need to provide supporting evidence.

If foreign indicia is found on your account, you’ll need to provide:

• 'curing' documentary evidence, and
• a reasonable explanation for the foreign indicia identified.

Curing for FATCA and CRS means providing evidence or documentation to confirm that you’re an Australian tax resident and not a tax resident of a foreign country. The following tables describe the documentary evidence that could be used to cure the foreign indicia for individuals and entities.

If you already provided the above documents when you opened your Macquarie account, no further documents are needed, but we do require a reasonable explanation for the foreign indicia.

US Specified Persons must provide a United States of America (US) Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN) when opening a new account with Macquarie.  

Existing account holders without a US TIN will continue to be contacted as part of our annual CRS and FATCA due diligence procedures.

A US Specified Person includes, but is not limited to:

• US citizen and US residents for tax purposes
• Holder of a US TIN or US Reportable Account
• Entities that are US Specified Persons
• Non-US entities with US controlling persons.

Collection of Tax File Numbers (TFNs) is authorised, and its use and disclosure is regulated by the tax laws and Privacy Act.

Investors are not required to provide their TFN and declining to do so is not an offence. However, for Wrap and CMA accounts, TFN withholding tax (WHT) will be deducted where the investor does not provide any one of the following:

• A TFN (including both TFNs for joint accounts)
• An Australian Business Number (ABN)
• An exemption reason (e.g. they are a charity).

TFN withholding tax (WHT) will be deducted (at the highest marginal tax rate plus the Medicare Levy) from any income earned on your account (e.g. interest, dividends and distributions) at the time payment is made.

If you have a Wrap account, the amount of TFN WHT will be disclosed on your Tax Report.

If you have a Cash Management Account, the amount of TFN WHT will be disclosed on your statement.

For further information, please contact the Australian Taxation Office.

Non-residents and intermediaries who act on behalf of non-residents are subject to withholding tax (WHT). The rate of WHT applied depends on the:

• type of income, and
• location of the recipient.

Generally, we apply non-resident WHT as follows:

From 1 July 2025, we’ll apply non-resident withholding tax (WHT) based on the overseas addresses we have on file for your account. This means:

• any account holder with any address outside Australia will be considered a non-resident for WHT purposes
• we’ll withhold tax in accordance with the rates that are appropriate to the income and overseas country
• you can’t choose your accounts tax treatment for non-resident (WHT) purposes
• if your address has changed during the year, you may become subject to WHT after we’ve been notified of the address change
• there may be differences between the ‘non-residency’ status for CRS/FATCA and non-resident WHT. Non-resident WHT applies according to the address on file, whereas CRS/FATCA generally apply based on domicile. For more information see Why do I need to confirm my tax residency?

It’s important you keep your contact details up to date to ensure WHT is applied correctly.

We also strongly recommend that investors seek independent taxation advice in relation to the accuracy of this information based on their own individual circumstances.

For dual-listed securities that derive income in the United States of America (US), the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) requires certain documentation from the ultimate beneficial owner to ensure the appropriate level of tax is withheld in the US. 

The W-8BEN form establishes that you’re not a US person and that you’re the beneficial owner of the income received. Where an investor is a resident for tax purposes of a country with which the US has negotiated a double tax agreement (DTA), in completing this form, you may be able to claim a reduced rate of, or exemption from, US withholding tax (US WHT).

For the lower withholding rate to apply, a W-8BEN form for individual investors or a W-8BEN-E form for entity investors must be completed in full and submitted before any income is paid or credited.

You can return W-8BEN and W-8BEN-E forms by email or post.

Email

If you want to return the form via email, please note we can only accept forms that have been electronically signed using an electronic signature provider from the approved list of electronic signature providers.

Once completed, you’ll need to provide the following and send to wrapsolutions@macquarie.com:

1. Electronically signed form
2. Certificate of Completion issued by the electronic signature provider

Post

If you want to return the form by post, please submit the original signed W-8BEN or W-8BEN-E form to the below address, with any other required documentation, by registered mail to:

Attn: Corporate Actions W-8BEN Forms 
Macquarie Wrap 
GPO Box 4045 
Sydney NSW 2001

Don’t send the form directly to the share registry as further information is required from us prior to submission.

The following dual-listed securities require a W-8BEN or W-8BEN-E form:

• News Corporation (NWS) and News Corporation Non Vote (NWSLV)^1,2
• RESMED (RMD)
• Vanguard All-World Ex-US Shares Index ETF (VEU)
• Vanguard US Total Market Shares Index ETF (VTS)
• Coronado Global Resources Inc (CRN)

Please note: 

• If you hold either or both NWS and NWSLV, only one W-8BEN form is required. Share registry certifies for account holders’ holdings in both securities upon Wrap’s lodgement for one of the two, thus NWSLV is automatically included in our W-8BEN lodgement service.
• This process is not offered for account holders who may hold the above securities through an SMA, as it is held with a different Responsible Entity.