In Meilicke & Others v Finanzamt Bonn-Innenstadt (No. 1) ([2008] STC 2267) the ECJ had held that the EC Treaty must ‘be interpreted as precluding tax legislation under which on a distribution of dividends by a capital company a shareholder who is fully taxable in a Member State is entitled to a tax credit calculated by reference to the corporation tax rate on the distributed profits if the dividend-paying company is established in that same Member State but not if it is established in another Member State'.
Following this decision the German court again referred the case to the ECJ for guidance regarding the amount of tax credit which the appellants could claim.
In Meilicke & Others v Finanzamt Bonn-Innenstadt (No. 2) (ECJ Case C-262/09) the ECJ held that ‘the calculation of the tax credit must be...