An important decision was given yesterday striking down a German provision that required foreign investors to demonstrate “no offset” of German withholding taxes (“WHT”) in order to get a refund. This will facilitate thousands of claims by EU and non-EU investors.
The decision is of high importance as currently more than 30,000 WHT reclaim applications are pending with the Federal Tax Office which, hopefully, could move closer to a resolution following this decision.
The decision follows an opinion of Advocate General Collins (“AG”) issued a few months ago in the case.