The parent/subsidiary directive, which generally eliminates withholding taxes on dividends paid to ‘parent companies’;

Parent/Subsidiary Directive: eliminates withholding taxes on dividends paid to parent companies in EU Member States;

The Parent–Subsidiary Directive was designed to eliminate tax obstacles for profit distributions between parent companies and subsidiaries based in different Member States.

70 According to recital 3 of the Parent-Subsidiary Directive, the directive aims to eliminate double taxation of profits distributed by a subsidiary to its parent company at the level of the parent company.

17 Article 1(2) of the Parent-Subsidiary Directive recognises solely the Member States’ power to apply domestic or agreement-based provisions required for the prevention of fraud and abuse.

The ECOFIN agreed upon an amendment to EU tax rules aimed at preventing the double non-taxation of corporate groups deriving from hybrid loan arrangements.

12 Those companies therefore lodged an appeal before the Conseil d’État (Council of State, France) claiming that the tax legislation at issue is incompatible with EU primary law and with the Parent-Subsidiary Directive.