German Anti-Treaty Shopping Rule Infringes on E.U. Law

Volume 5 No 8    |    Read Article

By Pia Dorfmueller (guest author)

When do attacks on cross-border tax planning move from enough to too much? The European Court of Justice (“E.C.J.”) provided an answer in connection with German tax rules limiting access to the E.U. Parent Subsidiary Directive for dividends leaving Germany. For many years, German law provided an irrebuttable presumption of fraudulent or abusive tax planning when a multinational structure failed to meet a “one size fits all” set of factual parameters. The provision was struck down by the E.C.J. last year, modified slightly in response, and struck down again in June of this year. Pia Dorfmueller of P+P Pollath explains why the German tax law was found to violate European law – it provided a response that was not proportional to the alleged wrong-doing.   See more →