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Since you don’t want them to be confused or irritated or to ignore the letter take care about how you phrase it. | Since you don’t want them to be confused or irritated or to ignore the letter take care about how you phrase it. | ||
== | ==Rules 1: Be brief== | ||
It ought to go without saying, but it is a truism the modern professional seems unable to take to heart: be brief. Do not use two words when one will do. Imagine you are flying on the cheapest budget airline in the world, and the words are luggage. | |||
===Get to the point=== | ===Subrule: Get to the point=== | ||
Presume that if a client starts reading at all, it will stop reading far more quickly than you would. If you expect your client to do something, state it clearly, plainly and above all early in the communication. | Presume that if a client starts reading at all, it will stop reading far more quickly than you would. If you expect your client to do something, state it clearly, plainly and above all early in the communication. | ||
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| style="width: 50%" | From 1 July, you must provide us with newly issued WHT certificates before the dividend record date. | | style="width: 50%" | From 1 July, you must provide us with newly issued WHT certificates before the dividend record date. | ||
|} | |} | ||
=== State consequences=== | ===Sub-rule: don’t show your working=== | ||
Your subject matter experts will understand all the details, and will barely be able to resist regurgitating them all over your letter. ''Don’t''. Say what you need to say, as clearly as you can so that a non-specialist will grasp is straight away, and no more. | |||
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! Don’t say !! Do say | |||
{{aligntop}} | |||
| style="width: 50%" |The Upper House of the German Parliament on 28 May 2021 approved the bill pertaining to the modernisation of withholding tax relief procedures (“'''AbzStEntModG'''”; ''Abzugsteuerentlastungsmodernisierungsgesetz''), parts of which are due to enter into force on 1 July 2021, especially amendments to the German Investment Tax Act. The bill foresees a change in terms of the relief at source procedure applicable to income payments subject to German withholding tax (for example dividend and taxable interest payments) paid to a foreign investment fund (“''beschränkt körperschaftsteuerpflichtiger Investmentfonds''”). In this context, newly issued fund status certificates will contain information on the corporation tax status (“''Körperschaftsteuerstatus''”) of the certified investment fund. Current valid certificates that are already submitted, however, will stay valid according to a letter issued by the Ministry of Finance on 1 June 2021 (BMF – reference GZ: IV C 1 - S 1980-1/19/10027 :006 DOK: 2021/0577184). | |||
| style="width: 50%" | On 1 July, Germany changed its rules for claiming withholding tax relief on dividend income. These changes affect non-resident investment funds. | |||
|} | |||
===Sub-rule: Don’t track regulatory language=== | |||
It is highly fashionable among legal eagles to “track the language of the legislation” in client communications. This ensures utmost fidelity with compliance, and guarantees one cannot be blamed. ''these are supremely poor motivations to have when writing a client communication. They are lazy, timid and | |||
==Rule 2: Be clear== | |||
=== Subrule: State consequences=== | |||
Be clear what will happen if the client doesn’t reply. Don’t be judgmental; just matter of fact. | Be clear what will happen if the client doesn’t reply. Don’t be judgmental; just matter of fact. | ||
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| style="width: 50%" | If you do not, you must file your WHT reclaim directly with the German tax authority. | | style="width: 50%" | If you do not, you must file your WHT reclaim directly with the German tax authority. | ||
|} | |} | ||
== | ==Rule 3: Be persuasive=== | ||
Frame your letter to appeal to your correspondents, so they are more likely to read it. | To the extent following rules 1 and 2 don’t get you there, remember you are writing with the idea of not just discharging some regulatory obligation to your client — that’s a second order objective — but to make your client think well of you. Frame your letter to appeal to your correspondents, so they are more likely to read it. | ||
===Subrule: be personal=== | |||
Personalise it. don’t say “[[Dear Client]]” — don’t ''ever'' do that — but address it to an individual by name, and send it from an individual, by name. Yes, I know it is a mass mailshot to every client in the book. But we are in 2021, friends. It is not beyond the wit of technology, anymore to ''use a freaking mail merge''. (you thought I was going to say “use neural networks to guess client names” didn’t you?). What’s stopping you? Oh, crappy client static data? ''Fix your damn client static data''. If your salesguys aren’t keeping it up to date, ''they’re not doing their jobs''. Either have good client static data, and use it to demonstrate you care enough about your client to be justified in calling them “dear” — or don’t, accept your clients to you are a passive herd of cattle there only to be milked, and don’t try to be ingratiating while you do it. | Personalise it. don’t say “[[Dear Client]]” — don’t ''ever'' do that — but address it to an individual by name, and send it from an individual, by name. Yes, I know it is a mass mailshot to every client in the book. But we are in 2021, friends. It is not beyond the wit of technology, anymore to ''use a freaking mail merge''. (you thought I was going to say “use neural networks to guess client names” didn’t you?). What’s stopping you? Oh, crappy client static data? ''Fix your damn client static data''. If your salesguys aren’t keeping it up to date, ''they’re not doing their jobs''. Either have good client static data, and use it to demonstrate you care enough about your client to be justified in calling them “dear” — or don’t, accept your clients to you are a passive herd of cattle there only to be milked, and don’t try to be ingratiating while you do it. | ||
''Don’t say “please be advised”''. Just don’t do it. These are your valuable clients, not truculent secondary school children plotting to burn down the staff room. | ''Don’t say “please be advised”''. ''Ever''. Just don’t do it. These are your valuable clients, not truculent secondary school children plotting to burn down the staff room. | ||
===Subrule: be emphatic=== | |||
say what you mean with strong, active, assertive nouns and verbs. Don’t use weasle words. Avoid “seems to”, “appears to be”, “slightly”, “almost”, “practically”, “virtually”. | |||
===Subrule: Don’t use disclaimers=== | |||
Think first “what will my client think of ''me'' if I say that”, rather than “what if I get it wrong and my client sues me?” You are a professional. You are good at what you do. Trust yourself not to get it wrong. Disclaimers are like [[airbags]]. [[You only need airbags if you don’t steer straight]]. Concentrate on defensive driving, not crash mats. If you ''have'' to have a disclaimer — and I know, you ''will'' have to have one — keep it brief, to the point and put it at the end. If the first thing your client reads is “[[Please be advised]] we take no responsibility for this, we are only doing this because someone said we have to, so on your own head be it”, your client is going to think, “gee, what a douche”. Generally, that’s not how you want your client to be thinking now, is it? | |||