Recent referrals to the European Court of Justice

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) continues to receive a significant number of referrals from the national courts of Member States seeking clarification as to the compatibility of national tax measures with EC Treaty provisions. A number of referrals to the ECJ in the past few months may be of interest to Irish taxpayers.

Inbound dividends

On 8 January 2005, the European Union (EU) announced in its Official Journal that a reference for a preliminary ruling had been made to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) by the UK High Court on 13 October 2004 in the ‘FII Group Litigation’ case . The referral concerns the unfavourable UK treatment of distributions received from companies resident in other EU Member States when compared to recipients of distributions from UK companies. A hearing date has not yet been set.

Tax Alert 17 January 2005