CJEU - Recent Developments in Direct Taxation 2024

1. Introduction

On 29 July 2024, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) rendered its judgment in Keva and Others. The Court held that it is contrary to the free movement of capital for Sweden to impose withholding tax (WHT) on dividends paid to foreign public pension institutions, while corresponding dividends received by Swedish public general pension funds are tax-exempt.

This article carries out an analysis of the Keva and Others case and discusses its possible future impact. The Supreme Administrative Court (SAC), which referred the case to the CJEU, delivered its judgements at the end of December 2024. The rulings by the SAC will be mentioned briefly in Section 4. For a more in-depth description of the background of the case and the situation leading up to KEVA and Others, please see earlier publication. In Section 2., the legal dispute is explained. In Section 3., the judgement of the CJEU is referred to and analysed, with a focus on the question of comparability. In Section 4. concluding comments are made.

S. 2082. Background and The Legal Dispute

During the period from 2003 to 2016, the three Finnish public pension institutions, Keva, Åland Island Pension Fund and the Chur...