CJEU – Recent Developments in Direct Taxation 2015
1. Aufl. 2016
Besitzen Sie diesen Inhalt bereits,
melden Sie sich an.
oder schalten Sie Ihr Produkt zur digitalen Nutzung frei.
I. S. 12The Wereldhave Case (C-448/15)
A. Introduction
On , the Court of Appeal of Brussels lodged a request for a preliminary ruling regarding the interpretation of the Parent-Subsidiary Directive in the context of a dividend distribution between a Belgian real estate investment fund (“société d’investissement à capital fixe immobilière, ‘SICAFI’ / vastgoed beleggingsvennootschap met vast kapitaal”) and its Dutch shareholders.
B. Facts and legislation
1. The Belgian withholding tax exemption on dividends
Article 106, § 5 RD/BITC as applicable to the issue at hand provides that no withholding tax (“WHT”) is levied on dividends distributed by a Belgian subsidiary to its parent company resident in another Member State. This exemption is subject to the following three cumulative conditions:
The shareholding must represent at least 25 % of the share capital of the subsidiary and must have been held or is to be held for an uninterrupted period of at least one year;
Both the distributing subsidiary and the parent company must be companies as defined in the Parent-Subsidiary Directive.
Article 2c of the Parent-Subsidiary Directive provides that the notion of “company of a Member State” m...