On 23 November 2007, the European Commission referred the Netherlands to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) for not exempting the dividends paid to companies established in certain EFTA countries from withholding tax (C-521/07).
According to Netherlands tax law, tax on dividends is not withheld when a Netherlands company pays a dividend to another company established in the Netherlands which holds at least 5% of the shares of the company which pays the dividend. In con…