Case C-546/25, Beteiligungsgesellschaft: Request for a preliminary ruling from the Bundesfinanzhof (Germany) lodged on 13 August 2025 – Beteiligungsgesellschaft v Finanzamt B
Date: 2025-08-13
Institutions: Court of Justice
Subjects: basis of tax assessment, corporation tax, loss, parent company, profit, right of establishment, subsidiary, tax law








C_202600082EN.000101.fmx.xml












Official Journal of the European Union


EN
C series













C/2026/82


5.1.2026






Request for a preliminary ruling from the Bundesfinanzhof (Germany) lodged on 13 August 2025 – Beteiligungsgesellschaft v Finanzamt B


(Case C-546/25, Beteiligungsgesellschaft)

(C/2026/82)
Language of the case: German

Referring court

Bundesfinanzhof

Parties to the main proceedings


Applicant and appellant on a point of law: Beteiligungsgesellschaft

Defendant and respondent in the appeal on a point of law: Finanzamt B

Intervener. Bundesministerium der Finanzen

Questions referred







1.


Does the second indent of Article 4(1) of Directive 90/435/EEC (1) preclude national legislation under which distributions made by a subsidiary established in another Member State of the European Union in the case of a loss-making resident parent company result in its loss carry-over being reduced by the amount of those distributions, but the tax paid by the subsidiary on the distributions is not set off either in the year in which the dividends were received or in the year in which the parent company makes profits which exceed the losses carried over?










2.


If the first question is to be answered in the affirmative, where a Member State has opted, for the purpose of transposing Directive 90/435 into national law, for the imputation system permitted by the second indent of Article 4(1) of Directive 90/435, and that Member State has made its deduction arrangements non-compliant with the directive by deducting tax solely in the year in which the dividends were received, even though, because of the scope for loss carry-overs under national law, those dividends may also be taxed in subsequent tax years, does a direct right to have tax deducted in the form of a credit carry-over follow from the directive?










3.


If Directive 90/435 does not grant a direct right to a credit carry-over (questions 1 and 2), does such a right follow from an infringement of freedom of establishment (Article 52 of the Treaty establishing the European Community, as amended by the Treaty of Maastricht, or Article 43 of the Treaty establishing the European Community, as amended by the Treaty of Amsterdam, now Article 49 TFEU, as amended by the Treaty of Lisbon)?










4.


Does the assessment of the first three questions differ with regard to the dividends which the parent company itself did not receive directly but which its wholly owned subsidiary, which was also making only losses, had received (in the years 1993 to 1996 in the present case) before that subsidiary, along with its loss carry-over, was absorbed into the parent company?






(1)  Council Directive 90/435/EEC of 23 July 1990 on the common system of taxation applicable in the case of parent companies and subsidiaries of different Member States (OJ L 225, 1990, p. 6).


ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/C/2026/82/oj
ISSN 1977-091X (electronic edition)