Austrian, German dispute over taxation of profit-participation certificates to be considered by European Court

The European Court of Justice has published a reference for an Austrian case (Case C-648/15) concerning whether Austria or Germany can tax profit-participation certificates (Genussscheine).

Austria claims that the Court should hold that income from profit-participation certificates should not to be characterized as ‘profit participation claims’ within the meaning of Article 11(2) of the German-Austrian Double Taxation Convention.

As such, Austria argues that it, as the State of the seat of the Bank Austria, has the exclusive right to tax the income from such certificates and Germany should to refrain from taxing the income.

• Republic of Austria v Federal Republic of Germany