In response to questions arising from Parliamentary debates, the Minster of Finance announced a liberalization with regard to the requirement to issue dividend statements. He would like to simplify the rules considerably by allowing electronic dividend statements. In advance of any legislation, the Minister also announced policy which would mean that dividend statements would not need to be issued for dividend distributions in participation relationships, within a fiscal unity or to a director-major shareholder.
In principle, a dividend statement must be issued when dividends are distributed. The response to questions raised during Parliamentary debates demonstrates that this administrative obligation will be lightened considerably. This obligation, mainly for the financial sector, will be limited to the issuing of an electronic statement, in the near future. The mandatory statement will be scrapped in many other situations, such as a dividend distribution to a director-major shareholder.
Failing to issue or issuing an incorrect or incomplete dividend statement became an offence liable to penalty as of January 1, 2010. This could result in the imposition of a default penalty, a lighter penalty than that prior to 2010, when it was considered a criminal offence. The Minister did not announce any further liberalization with regard to the default penalty. He also stands by the default penalty’s material retrospective power.