Spanish Central Tax Court applies doctrine of ECJ Danish cases to deny withholding tax exemption on dividend payments to EU shareholders

Executive summary

The Spanish Central Tax Court issued a Decision on 8 October 2019 (the Decision), recently published, confirming the rejection of the withholding tax exemption for dividend payments by a Spanish company to a Luxembourg company on the basis that the latter is not the beneficial owner of such payments.

The Decision follows the beneficial ownership stance expressed by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in the so-called Danish cases (See EY Global Tax Alert, CJEU rules on applicatio…