Danish Dynamite: The 26 February 2019 CJEU Judgments in the Danish Beneficial Ownership Cases

Abstract

On 26 February 2019 the Grand Chamber of the Court of Justice of the European Union (‘CJEU’) delivered two groundbreaking judgments in the field of tax abuse. These judgments are known as the Danish beneficial ownership cases and relate to withholding tax exemptions provided for by the Interest and Royalty Directive (joined cases C-115/15, C-118/16, C-119/16 and 299/16) and the Parent-Subsidiary Directive (joined cases C-116/16 and C-117/16). They contain numerous interesting statements, notably the confirmation for the first time that the direct tax Directives are controlled by the general principle of EU law according to which EU law cannot be relied upon for abusive purposes (the ‘abuse of rights principle’). Furthermore, the CJEU also interprets the much debated concept of ‘beneficial ownership’ (‘BO’) for the first time. In this contribution, the authors will analyse the judgments of the CJEU as regards the abuse of rights principle and the BO concept.