On 31 January 2008, Advocate General Paolo Mengozzi of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) gave his opinion in the case of Burda Verlagsbeteiligungen GmbH v. Finanzamt Hamburg-Am Tierpark (C-284/06). The German Federal Finance Court (Bundesfinanzhof) had requested a preliminary ruling from the ECJ on 29 June 2006.
In this case, the Advocate General concluded that national legislation which, where profits are distributed by a subsidiary to its parent company, …