Collective Investment Schemes & EU Holding Companies

Collective Investment Schemes & EU Holding Companies: A Multijurisdictional Analysis in Light of the CJEU Danish Cases

Overview


On 26 February 2019, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) issued long-awaited judgments in a group of cases concerning the Danish government withholding tax on dividends and interest paid by Danish companies to companies in other EU Member States (CJEU Joined Cases C-115/16, C-118/16, C-119/16 and 299/16; and Cases C-116/16 and C-117/16) (Danish Cases).

The judgments dealt with the interpretation of the anti-abuse clauses laid down under Art. 1, para. 2 of the Parent-Subsidiary Directive (2011/96/EU) (PSD) and Art. 5 of the Interest and Royalties Directive (2003/49/EC) (IRD).

In light of the Danish Cases judgments, we prepared a special report to provide a comprehensive and high-level multijurisdictional analysis on the current risks involved in structures that are put in place under the most common market practice, specifically collective investment schemes and EU holding companies. The report draws a comparison between a number of EU jurisdictions—Italy, France, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Spain and United Kingdom—based on two different case studies.