Company X B.V. held all the shares in the Irish company A.
The Tax Agency in the Netherlands claimed that the Irish company A qualified as a “low-taxed investment participation”.
The court agreed, as company A was not subject to a taxation of 10 per cent or more in Ireland.
The Tax Agency also claimed that X B.V.’s profit should include a hidden dividend due to company A’s providing an interest-free loan to another associated Irish company E.
The court agreed. Irish company E had benefited from the interest-free loan and this benefit should be regarded as a dividend distribution.
It was then claimed by company X B.V, that the tax treaty between the Netherlands and Ireland did not permit including hidden dividends in X’s profit.
The Supreme Court disagreed and found that the hidden dividend falls within the scope of the term “dividends” in article 8 of the tax treaty.