CELEX: 62007CA0138
Language: en
Date: 2009-02-12 00:00:00
Title: Case C-138/07: Judgment of the Court (First Chamber) of 12 February 2009 (reference for a preliminary ruling from the Hof van beroep te Antwerpen — Belgium) — Belgische Staat v N.V. Cobelfret (Directive 90/435/EEC — Article 4(1) — Direct effect — National legislation designed to prevent double taxation of distributed profits — Deduction of the amount of dividends received from a parent company's basis of assessment only in so far as it has made taxable profits)

4.4.2009   
            
            
               EN
            
            
               Official Journal of the European Union
            
            
               C 82/3
            
         Judgment of the Court (First Chamber) of 12 February 2009 (reference for a preliminary ruling from the Hof van beroep te Antwerpen — Belgium) — Belgische Staat v N.V. Cobelfret
   (Case C-138/07) (1)
   
   (Directive 90/435/EEC - Article 4(1) - Direct effect - National legislation designed to prevent double taxation of distributed profits - Deduction of the amount of dividends received from a parent company's basis of assessment only in so far as it has made taxable profits)
   (2009/C 82/05)
   Language of the case: Dutch
   Referring court
   Hof van beroep te Antwerpen
   Parties to the main proceedings
   
      Appellant: Belgische Staat
   
      Respondent: N.V. Cobelfret
   Re:
   Reference for a preliminary ruling — Hof van beroep te Antwerpen — Interpretation of Article 4 of 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 1990 L 225, p. 6) — National provisions designed to prevent double taxation of distributed dividends — Conditions
   Operative part of the judgment
   The first indent of Article 4(1) of 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 must be interpreted as precluding legislation of a Member State, such as that at issue in the main proceedings, which provides that dividends received by a parent company are to be included in its basis of assessment in order subsequently to be deducted from that basis in the amount of 95 %, in so far as, for the tax period in question, the parent company has a positive profit balance after deduction of other exempted profits.
   The first indent of Article 4(1) of Directive 90/435 is unconditional and sufficiently precise to be capable of being relied on before national courts.
   
      (1)  OJ C 117, 26.5.2007.