In the Kluwer International Tax Blog, Professor Robert Danon and Mr. Benjamin Malek (research associate at the Tax Policy Center of the University of Lausanne) discuss an important decision (2C_354/2018) in which the Swiss Federal Tribunal referred for the first time to the so-called “Danish cases” (C-115/16 and C-116/16) decided by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU). The case which concerned an outbound dividend case involving art. 15(1) of the Swiss-EU Savings Agreement is to be placed into perspective with similar cases decided recently by national courts of EU member States (notably France, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain).
This blog critically analyzes in particular the findings of the Federal Tribunal from the perspective of the beneficial ownership limitation, the general prohibition of abuse of rights and, finally, the issue of alternative relief in the case of abuse.