EU To Challenge Dutch Pension Tax Rules Before ECJ

by Ulrika Lomas, Tax-News.com, Brussels

10 November 2020

The European Commission has referred the Netherlands to the Court of Justice for its rules on the cross-border transfer of pension capital and cross-border provision of pensions.

The Commission said that its decision concerns three different rules in the Dutch cross-border pension regime.

First, foreign service providers are required to provide guarantees to the Dutch authorities if pension capital is transferred from the Netherlands to a foreign provider or if foreign providers want to provide services on the Dutch market. Second, former employees also have to provide guarantees if the pension capital is transferred to a foreign service provider of if they want to buy pension services from a foreign provider. Third, transfers of pension capital to foreign providers by mobile workers taking up employment outside the Netherlands are tax exempt only if the foreign providers assume the responsibility for any tax claims or if the taxpayers themselves provide a guarantee.

According to the Commission, these conditions are restrictions to the free movement of citizens and workers, the freedom of establishment, the freedom to provide services, and the free movement of capital, as set out in the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU.

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