Simon Whitehead examines the CJEU’s second ruling on this issue
The European Court has now delivered its second ruling in the FII group litigation (Case C-35/11)). The first almost six years ago (Case C-446/04 [2007] STC 326) addressed a lengthy shopping list of nine main questions (and 16 sub-questions) thought then to encompass all the difficult points of EU law which the case engaged. This second reference was the response of the UK courts to the difficulties they encountered in interpreting and applying that first ruling.
Several of the questions addressed in this ruling concern advance corporation tax (ACT) and are unlikely to be of interest beyond those involved in the case. Of more general importance is however two issues which have been hotly debated in courts and by academics....
