Opinion Statement ECJ-TF 1/2016 on the Decision of the European Court of Justice in Joined Cases Miljoen (Case C-10/14), X (Case C-14/14) and Société Générale (Case C-17/14) on the Netherlands Dividend Withholding Tax

This is an Opinion Statement prepared by the CFE ECJ Task Force on Miljoen and others (Joined Cases C-10/14, C-14/14 and C-17/14),1 in respect of which the Third Chamber of the Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ) delivered its decision on 17 September 2015, following the Opinion of Advocate General Jääskinen of 25 June 2015.2 The cases concern the taxation of dividends received by individual and corporate non-resident taxpayers. They answer several questions in respect of the appropriateness of levying dividend withholding taxes, such as the need to allow for an offset against ordinary income tax, the deductibility of related costs and the relevance of an offset granted by a tax treaty. After illustrating the factual background, parties’ arguments and the ECJ’ s decision, this Opinion Statement will focus on issues that the ECJ has left open.