Beneficial Owner in Light of the WHT Guidelines
On Wednesday, 9 July, the final tax guidelines dated 3 July 2025 were published, addressing the application of the so-called beneficial owner clause for withholding tax (WHT) purposes. One of the key issues covered in the Guidelines is the definition of a beneficial owner as a condition for applying a given WHT preference.
The Guidelines reiterate many criteria for interpreting this concept, which had already been discussed in previous draft guidelines, in particular:
• the condition of having no obligation to pass the payment on to another entity and receiving it for one’s own benefit should be considered functionally as a single condition,
• the crucial role of economic control over the payment,
• the status of the beneficial owner should be assessed in the context of the specific payment in question.
Regarding the condition of conducting genuine business activity, the Guidelines confirm that the status of manufacturing or trading companies should be assessed differently than that of financial or holding companies.
Importantly, the Minister of Finance confirmed that entities with a so-called shared personal-property substrate may also qualify as beneficial owners. This means that it is acceptable for certain costs related to their activities to be borne by other companies within the same capital group, provided that these companies have an appropriate tax residency.
This is significant information for multinational groups, especially for holding or financial companies with limited assets that, to some extent, rely on shared personnel or assets within the group.