Following the request for a preliminary ruling from the German Supreme Tax Court, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) is called to decide whether a German parent company has the right to deduct from its taxable income losses incurred by its UK branch, which had ceased activity and thus could no longer utilize its accumulated tax losses in the UK. In his Opinion, the Advocate General has suggested that the German rules denying the import of losses of foreign branches are not contrary to the EU principles of freedom of establishment.
The European Court of Justice held in its decision Memira Holding AB issued on 19 June 2019 that when assessing whether the losses of a non-resident subsidiary are final within the meaning of its judgment in Marks & Spencer on 13 December 2005 (C‑446/03), the fact that, in the event of a merger, the subsidiary’s Member State of establishment does not does not allow the losses of one company to be transferred to another company liable for corporation tax, is not decisive, unless the parent company can demonstrate that it is impossible for it to deduct those losses through ensuring that - in particular by means of a sale- the losses are fiscally taken into account by a third party for future tax periods.
The European Court of Justice will have to decide once again on the justification of the non-deductibility of ‘final losses’ in the foreseeable future. In two Swedish cases the Advocate General has formulated her opinion and is not convinced of a "finality" or cross-border loss utilisation due to the particularities of the cases.
The Supreme Tax Court has held that even if a company is entitled to offset the loss of its foreign subsidiary at all, it cannot do so before the loss becomes irrecoverable.
