62022CO0067_INF
Order of the Court (Sixth Chamber) of 1 September 2022 –Pharol
(Case C‑67/22)
(Reference for a preliminary ruling – Article 99 of the Rules of Procedure of the Court of Justice – Articles 63 and 65 TFEU – Free movement of capital – Tax on the income of legal persons – Dividends received from a company established in the Member State of the beneficiary company – Dividends received from a company established in a third country – National legislation for the elimination of double taxation – Difference in treatment – Restriction – Justification – Efficiency of fiscal verification – Absence of a convention obligation on communicating tax information)
Free movement of capital and liberalisation of payments – Restrictions – Tax legislation – Tax on income of legal persons – Taxation of dividends – National legislation aimed at the elimination of double taxation – Legislation allowing the full or partial deduction by a resident company of a Member State of the dividends distributed by a resident company of the same Member State – Legislation not allowing such deduction where the distributing company is a resident of a third country – Whether permissible – Conditions
(Arts 63 and 65 TFEU)
(see paragraphs 28, 34-43, operative part)
Operative part
Articles 63 and 65 TFEU must be interpreted as not precluding national legislation aimed at the elimination of the economic double taxation of dividends under which a resident company of the Member State concerned can deduct from its taxable profit dividends which had been distributed to it by another resident company, but cannot deduct dividends distributed by a company established in a third country, on the grounds that the latter is not linked to the Member State of taxation by any convention obligation on communicating tax information, where that deduction is subject to a condition relating to the tax liability of the distributing company in the third country and, due to the absence of a convention obligation of that third country on providing information, it is impossible to obtain that information from the third country. A Member State is not required to grant the taxpayer the possibility to produce for himself or herself the evidence to show that the necessary conditions to obtain the deduction are satisfied where, due to the absence of a convention obligation, that Member State cannot verify the veracity of that evidence.