European Commission takes steps against Germany, Estonia and Czech Republic regarding taxation of outbound dividends

On 31 January 2008, the European Commission announced that it had sent requests for information in the form of letters of formal notice (the first step of the infringement procedure under Art. 226 of the EC Treaty) to Germany and Estonia about their rules under which dividends (and in the case of Germany also interest) paid to foreign pension funds may be taxed more heavily than dividends (and interest) paid to domestic pension funds. It also sent a letter of formal notice to the…