The European Commission has requested the European Court of Justice (ECJ) to determine that the conditions imposed by the UK tax rules on cross-border group relief mean that in practice it is almost impossible for companies to receive this loss relief.
The reference to the ECJ follows the delivery of a reasoned opinion by the European Commission on 18 September 2008 asking the UK to implement the ECJ decision on cross-border loss relief in the Marks & Spencer case. Although the UK made changes to its tax legislation following the Marks & Spencer case the conditions imposed by the UK on access to the relief made it almost impossible to obtain the relief in practice.
The European Commission considers that the UK has an unnecessarily limited interpretation of the ECJ decision.
