Withholding Taxes, Losses and Territoriality – Opinion Statement ECJ-TF 3/2025 on the Decision of the CJEU of 19 December 2024 in Credit Suisse Securities (Europe) Ltd v. Diputación Foral de Bizkaia Case (C-601/23) - 2025
Withholding Taxes, Losses and Territoriality – Opinion Statement ECJ-TF 3/2025 on the Decision of the CJEU of 19 December 2024 in Credit Suisse Securities (Europe) Ltd v. Diputación Foral de Bizkaia Case (C-601/23)
Droit fiscal européen - retenue à la source - pertes - territorialité - European Tax Law - withholding taxes - losses - territoriality
Abstract :
[en] In this CFE Opinion Statement, submitted to the EU Institutions in September 2025, the CFE ECJ Task Force comments on the CJEU’s decision of 19 December 2024 in Credit Suisse Securities (Europe) Ltd v. Diputación Foral de Bizkaia Case (C-601/23), in which the Sixth Chamber of the Court of Justice of the European Union held that the imposition of Spanish dividend withholding tax violated the freedom of capital movement, considering the non-resident’s overall loss situation.
Disciplines :
Tax law
Author, co-author :
Kofler, Georg
Garcia Prats, Alfredo
Haslehner, Werner
Kemmeren, Eric
Lang, Michael
Nogueira, JoãoFélixPinto
Raventós-Calvo, Stella
Richelle Graulich, Isabelle ; Université de Liège - ULiège > HEC Liège : UER > UER Finance, Comptabilité et Droit : Droit fiscal
Rust, Alexander
Language :
English
Title :
Withholding Taxes, Losses and Territoriality – Opinion Statement ECJ-TF 3/2025 on the Decision of the CJEU of 19 December 2024 in Credit Suisse Securities (Europe) Ltd v. Diputación Foral de Bizkaia Case (C-601/23)
Alternative titles :
[fr] Retenues à la source, pertes et territorialité - Opinion Statement de la ECJ TF 3/2025 concernant l'arrêt de la CJUE du 19 décembre 2024 dans l'affaire Credit Suisse Securities ((C-601/23)
Original title :
[en] Withholding Taxes, Losses and Territoriality – Opinion Statement ECJ-TF 3/2025 on the Decision of the CJEU of 19 December 2024 in Credit Suisse Securities (Europe) Ltd v. Diputación Foral de Bizkaia Case (C-601/23)
CJEU, 22 Nov. 2018, Sofina and Others, C-575/17, EU:C:2018:943.
for instance, CFE ECJ Task Force, “Opinion Statement ECJ-TF 3/2019 on the ECJ Decision of 22 November 2018 in Sofina (Case C-575/17) on Withholding Taxes, Losses and Territoriality”, Eur. Taxn. 60, no. 2/3 (2020), https://doi.org/10.59403/29twha7 and Georg Kofler, “Foreign Losses and Territoriality: Did Sofina Revolutionize Source State Taxation?”, in CFE Tax Advisers Europe: 60th Anniversary Liber Amicorum, eds. Servaas van Thiel, Piergiorgio Valente and Stella Raventós-Calvo (IBFD, 2019), 147-168.
CJEU, 19 Dec. 2024, Credit Suisse Securities (Europe) Ltd v. Diputación Foral de Bizkaia Case, C-601/23, EU:C:2024:1048.
Convention between the Kingdom of Spain and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Irelandfor the Avoidance of Double Taxation and the Prevention of Fiscal Evasion with Respect to Taxes on Income and on Capital (11 Dec. 2013).
Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, OJ C 202, 59 (2016).
the critical remarks articulated in CFE, “Opinion Statement ECJ-TF 3/2019”, in particular para. 18.
C-601/23, Credit Suisse Securities, paras. 30-31.
Id., paras. 33-34.
Id., para. 35.
Id., para. 38.
Id., paras. 44-45.
Id., para. 46.
Id., para. 53 et seq.
Id., para. 57.
Id., para. 59 et seq.
Id., para. 75.
Id., para. 76 et seq.
Id., para. 79 et seq.
Id., para. 84.
CJEU, 15 May 1997, Futura Participations and Singer, C-250/95, EU:C:1997:239.
CJEU, 15 Feb. 2007, Centro Equestre da Lezíria Grande Lda, C-345/04, EU:C:2007:96.
CJEU, 17 Sept. 2015, Miljoen and Others, C-10/14, C-14/14; and C-17/14, EU:C:2015:608.
C-601/23, Credit Suisse Securities, para. 54.
C-250/95, Futura Participations and Singer, para. 21.
C-345/04, Centro Equestre da Lezíria Grande Lda, para. 22.
CJEU, 29 July 2024, Keva and Others, C-39/23, EU:C:2024:648, para. 65.
C-601/23, Credit Suisse Securities, para. 74; for similar reasoning, C-39/23, Keva and Others, para. 73 and in the case law cited therein.
C-601/23, Credit Suisse Securities, para. 68 et seq.
Id., para. 75.
Id., Credit Suisse Securities, para. 79 et seq. The CJEU uses the term “cohesion” but seems to be referring to the same concept.
Id., para. 79.
Id., para. 81.
Request for a preliminary ruling of 25 Mar. 2025, Société Générale SA, C-241/25.
CJEU, 13 Dec. 2005, Marks & Spencer plc v. David Halsey (Her Majesty’s Inspector of Taxes), C-446/03, ECLI:EU:C:2005:763.
CJEU, 18 July 2007, Oy AA, C-231/05, EU:C:2007:439; CJEU, 15 May 2008, Lidl Belgium GmbH & Co. KG v. Finanzamt Heilbronn, C-414/06, EU:C:2008:278; CJEU, 23 Oct. 2008, Krankenheim Ruhesitz am Wannsee-Seniorenheimstatt, C-157/07, EU:C:2008:588; and CJEU, 12 June 2018, Bevola and Jens IW Trock, C-650/16, EU:C:2018:424.
CJEU, 16 June 2022, ACC Silicones Ltd, C-572/20, EU:C:2022:469.
C-572/20, ACC Silicones Ltd, para. 22.
Id., para. 56.
Id., para. 56.
C-601/23, Credit Suisse Securities, para. 77.
C-575/17, Sofina and Others, para. 72.
CJEU, 20 Sept. 2001, Courage Ltd and Crehan, C-453/99, EU:C:2001:465, para. 29; and CJEU, 10 July 1997, Palmisani, C-261/95, EU:C:1997:351, para. 27.
C-575/17, Sofina and Others, para. 59; and C-601/23, Credit Suisse Secu rities, para. 75.
See, for instance, Ivan Lazarov, “The Relevance of Fundamental Free doms for Direct Taxation”, in Introduction to European Tax Law on Direct Taxation, eds. Michael Lang et al. (IBFD, 2024), m.no. 212; Frans Vanistendael, “Ability to pay in European Community Law”, EC Tax Review 23, no. 3 (2014): 123; and Rishabh Agarwal, in Justice, Equality and Tax Law, eds. Nevia Čičin-Šain and Mario Riedl (Linde, 2022), 35.
NL: Corporate Income Tax Act (Wet op de vennootschapsbelasting), 1969, of 8 Oct. 1969, as amended.
