On 25 April 2013, Advocate General (AG) Wattel of the Dutch Supreme Court (Hoge Raad der Nederlanden) gave his opinion in Case 12/04717 (recently published) on the refund of excessive dividend withholding tax withheld on dividends paid to a Belgian resident. Details of the opinion are summarized below.
(a) Facts. The Taxpayer (X) is a Belgian resident, who in 2007 derived dividends from the Netherlands on which 15% dividend withholding tax was withheld. The taxpayer claimed that: