On 9 December 2004 the Austrian Supreme Administrative Court delivered its decision dealing with the interposition of an Irish base company established in the tax favoured International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) of the Dublin-docks. In contrast to the IFSC-decisions of the German Fiscal High Court the court held that it constitutes abuse of law if an Austrian company channels its interest income into such base company in order to get it then redistributed as a tax exempt
foreign dividend. However, the case under litigation relates to the years 1990 and 1991; the still open question is therefore whether, and if so to which extent, this decision may have an impact on cases that came into existence after Austria's EU accession. The article analyses the court decision and tries to give a preliminary answer to this open question.