Dutch tax authorities are seeking more ammunition to tackle dividend stripping—a tactic shareholders can use to avoid or minimize tax on distributed dividends—in the wake of the recent cum-ex scandal that rocked Europe.
Cum-ex trading or dividend arbitrage, led to investigations and even criminal charges—most notably in Germany—and sparked concerns more broadly in the Netherlands that its laws may not go far enough to stop aggressive tax planning used to cut tax bills on dividend payments.
In the Netherlands, the concern has centered on bolstering rules to stop dividend stripping, when a shareholder temporarily transfers legal ownership of shares to ...