Post by Błażej Kuźniacki

📣The analysis of the interpretation of the look-through approach for purposes of EU directives and tax treaties by the Poland's Ministry of Finance (MoF. 📚In the new contribution to "Tax in International Context", I dissect for you core elements of the Poland's MoF "clarifications" on beneficial ownership in respect of withholding taxation and the so called look-trough approach (LTA). This is the the 3rd and the final part of my comprehensive and in-depth analysis of this document. Although I wrote it in Polish, you can easily translate it to your language via algorithmic tools. 🔎 The part of the MoF's clarifications on LTA was celebrated by the Polish tax community as a victory. At a closer look, this is nothing more than a Pyrrhic victory. 🎯According to my research, the Supreme Administrative Court of Poland is legally obliged to ask the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) a question in the preliminary ruling procedure under Art. 267 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU, not least because a proper interpretation and application of LTA is frequently related to solving tax disputes between foreign taxpayers and Polish tax authorities under the EU directives and Polish tax treaties, as concluded with other EU Member States and third countries, and: ➢the interpretation of LTA is inconsistent among the Polish Courts; ➢the interpretation of LTA is inconsistent among the courts of various EU Member States; ➢ the interpretation of LTA presented by the MoF is incompatible with (i) the CJEU's case law, e.g. para. 94 of Halifax case and paras 82-94, 122, and many others of the Danish cases on interest and (ii) the relevant OECD documentation. See more in the article!