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You are here: BAILII >> Databases >> Court of Justice of the European Communities (including Court of First Instance Decisions) >> Gronfeldt & Gronfeldt (Free movement of capital) [2007] EUECJ C-436/06 (18 December 2007) URL: https://www.bailii.org/eu/cases/EUECJ/2007/C43606.html Cite as: [2007] ECR I-12357, [2007] EUECJ C-436/06, [2007] EUECJ C-436/6 |
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(Free movement of capital Taxation Income tax National legislation concerning the taxation of profits made from the sale of shareholdings (shares) in limited companies)
In Case C-436/06,
REFERENCE for a preliminary ruling under Article 234 EC, from the Finanzgericht Hamburg (Germany), made by decision of 20 September 2006, received at the Court on 23 October 2006, in the proceedings
Per Grønfeldt
Tatiana Grønfeldt
v
Finanzamt Hamburg Am Tierpark,
composed of C.W.A. Timmermans (Rapporteur), President of the Chamber, L. Bay Larsen, K. Schiemann, P. Klūris and C. Toader, Judges,
Advocate General: D. Ruiz-Jarabo Colomer,
Registrar: M. Ferreira, Principal Administrator,
having regard to the written procedure and further to the hearing on 27 September 2007,
after considering the observations submitted on behalf of:
Mr and Mrs Grønfeldt, by A. Mutscher, tax advisor,
the Finanzamt Hamburg Am Tierpark, by B. Fiedler, advisor,
the German Government, by M. Lumma and C. Blaschke, acting as Agents,
the Greek Government, by K. Georgiadis, O. Patsopoulou and I. Pouli, acting as Agents,
the Commission of the European Communities, by R. Lyal and G. Wilms, acting as Agents,
having decided, after hearing the Advocate General, to proceed to judgment without an Opinion,
gives the following
National legal context
The main proceedings and the question referred
'Is it compatible with Article 56 [EC], on the free movement of capital, that the profits from a sale of shares in a foreign limited company in 2001 were subject to tax if the seller held, either directly or indirectly, a share of at least 1% of the company's capital within the previous five years, whereas the profits from the sale of shares in a (national) limited company subject to unlimited corporation tax in 2001 were, in otherwise comparable circumstances, subject to tax only in the case of a substantial shareholding of at least 10%?'
The question referred
Costs
On those grounds, the Court (Second Chamber) hereby rules:
Article 56 EC is to be interpreted as precluding the legislation of a Member State, such as that at issue in the main proceedings, by which the profits from a sale of shares in 2001 in a limited company established in another Member State are immediately taxable where the seller had held, either directly or indirectly, a share of at least 1% of the company's capital within the previous five years, whereas the profits from the sale of shares in 2001, in the same circumstances, in a limited company established in that first Member State subject to unlimited corporation tax were subject to tax only in the case of a substantial shareholding of at least 10%.
[Signatures]
* Language of the case: German.