Highlights & Insights on European Taxation 2015, 307, ()

On 10 June 2015, the Court of Justice of the European Union (‘CJ’) delivered its judgment in X AB v. Skatteverket (C-686/13). The CJ held the non-deductibility for Swedish corporate tax purposes of realised foreign exchange losses on shareholdings eligible for relief under the Swedish participation exemption regime compatible with the fundamental freedoms. The case concerned a Swedish company that held a 45% shareholding in a UK subsidiary company whose shares were issued in US dollars. Due to a devaluation of the US dollar relative to the Swedish krona, the Swedish shareholder company would be confronted with a foreign exchange loss upon a disposal of its UK shareholding. Such a loss, however, would not be tax-deductible under the applicable Swedish tax rules. The CJ held such a treatment not to infringe the freedom of establishment, amongst others, because the non-deductibility would have been in place irrespective of whether the shareholding investment involved had been made in a Swedish company or in a company in another EU Member State.