Tax Treaty Case Law around the Globe 2025

1. Introduction

The Polish Supreme Administrative Court’s judgment of 25 June 2024 (case No. II FSK 1237/21) concerned the taxation of a French military disability pension received by a Polish-French dual national residing in Poland. The core issue was whether the applicant was required to file a Polish tax return and pay personal income tax on the pension, or whether the principle of equal treatment under Art. 24 of the Poland-France Double Taxation Convention (1975) exempted him from such obligations.

The dispute ultimately centred on the interpretation of the phrase “in the same circumstances” and the court’s controversial use of a “mirror-image” comparator to assess whether the application of Art. 19(2) resulted in nationality-based discrimination. More boardly, the case required the reconciliation of Art. 19(2), allocating taxing rights over government pensions, with Art. 24(1), prohibiting nationality-based discrimination, and raised the question whether a cross-border comparator could legitimately be used to test equality under the treaty.

Art. 19 of the Poland-France DTC applies to governmental functions. Section 2(a) stipulates that pensions paid by or out of funds created by...