Taxation of Cross-Border Dividends Paid to Individuals from an EU Perspective: Positive and Negative Integration in Bloomington, MN

Dividends that are distributed in a cross-border situation should not be subject to heavier tax than dividends distributed in a purely domestic situation. Accordingly, in several cases concerning both inbound and outbound dividends, the European Court of Justice has declared national taxation to be incompatible with European freedoms. Although this case law has had signifi cant infl uence on the tax systems used in the various Member States, the situation is far from resolved, and the interaction among national tax systems relating to taxation of cross-border dividends remains problematic.