Internatio­nales Steuer­recht

German Court Ruling Favors EU Funds on Withholding Tax Reclaims

An overview by ATOZ, Taxand Luxembourg

The German Federal Fiscal Court has recently ruled in favour of two European resident funds seeking withholding tax (WHT) refunds on dividends distributed before the 2018 amendment of the German Investment Tax Act.

This decision, published in March, marks a significant step towards clarifying the treatment of foreign investment funds under German tax law. It also suggests that the Federal Tax Office may soon begin reviewing outstanding WHT reclaims for pre-2018 cases, potentially impacting numerous pending claims from EU investment vehicles.

Antoine Dupuis, Desislava Dimitrova, and Allan Latassa from our Luxembourg member firm ATOZ have published an analysis of this ruling and its implications in more detail here.