News

Theoretically, in addition to the award made by the commercial courts, defendants who lose their case in Tunisia have always been under the obligation to pay registration dues to the Tunisian tax office, but this measure was not always applied.

Now, with the country facing economic crisis, payment of these rights is being demanded systematically.

 As a result, it is impossible for the local banks to cancel  bank guarantees without full payment of both the award and the registration dues which represent 5% of the award itself. 

In practice, two payment scenarios are possible:

1. either the bank guarantee is activated, in which case the local bank asks the correspondent bank to transfer both the award amount and the 5% in registration dues,
2. or payment is made through the Club’s correspondent, in which case the Club correspondent has to produce proof that the registration dues have been paid to the tax office when he returns the original of the bank guarantee for cancellation.

By circulating this update to the Clubs and their Members, Budd Tunisia hopes to avoid any confusion that could arise from the fact that when they lose a claim for which they set up a bank guarantee, they will face a demand for payment of  5% in judgement registration dues on top of the award.

Information provided by Hedia Ben Alaoui of Budd Tunisia (hedia.ben-alaoui@budd-pni.com)