Application of the Parent-Subsidiary Directive General Anti-Avoidance Rule in the Context of the Participation Exemption: Comments on the CJEU Decision in ‘Nordcurrent group’ UAB (C-228/24)

This note discusses the Nordcurrent case, which concerns the question of whether a genuinely established trading company that became a letterbox company over time can be qualified as an artificial arrangement set up in order to avoid taxes. The case shows that companies with little substance may be artificial in the sense of not having a proper enterprise, but that type of meagre physical presence in another Member State may not necessarily be motivated by a tax saving intention, which is necessary to ascertain an abusive arrangement.