In its Manninen judgment of September 7 2004 (case C-319/02), the European Court of Justice (ECJ) held that, when taxing dividend income, an EU member state may not grant its resident individuals a credit for corporation tax paid by distributing domestic corporations, but deny such a credit on dividends paid by foreign corporations. Such discrimination against the dividends of foreign EU corporations impermissibly restricts the free movement of capital, which is guaranteed under article 56 of the EC Treaty.
September 30 2004