Spanish Tax Authorities Rejoice over the Danish Cases

By: Antonio Barba and Diego Arribas

In its judgment of January 21, 2020 (Santander case, available here), the European Court of Justice (ECJ) not only prevented the Spanish Central Tax Tribunal (Tribunal Económico-Administrativo Central – TEAC) from requesting a preliminary ruling due to its lack of juridical independence (para. 77), but it also recalled its obligation to ensure that EU law is applied and to override national provisions that are contrary to EU law provisions that have a direct effect (para. 78). We address how the TEAC faced this task in a couple of resolutions dated October 8, 2019, dealing with the payment of Spanish-sourced dividends and interest to EU taxpayers and the application of the ECJ’s doctrine in the well-known Danish cases (ECJ’s judgments of February 26, 2019).

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