In a press release of 15 May 2009, it was announced that the Belgian Council of Ministers decided to bring the Belgian participation exemption in line with the decision of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in  Cobelfret (C-138/07).

In that case, the ECJ held that the first indent of Art. 4(1) of the Partent Subsidiary Directive 90/435/EEC (Directive) must be interpreted as precluding legislation of a Member State which provides that dividends received by a parent company are to be included in its basis of assessment in order subsequently to be deducted from that basis in the amount of 95%, in so far as, for the tax period in question, the parent company has a positive profit balance after deduction of other…