Fokus Bank ASA v the Norwegian State

Article by Peter Cussons, international corporate tax partner, PricewaterhouseCoopers, London. This article appeared in the March 2005 issue of Tax Adviser. On 23 November 2004, the European Free Trade Area Court handed down its judgment in Fokus Bank ASA v the Norwegian State in favour of Fokus Bank.

Fokus Bank is a Norwegian bank which had paid dividends to Norwegian shareholders in respect of shares previously held by non-resident shareholders in the UK and Germany. Under Norwegian domestic tax law (which has now been repealed) dividends paid to non-resident shareholders in Norwegian resident companies were subject to a 15% rate of dividend withholding tax.

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