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On Friday June 22, 2018, the Supreme Court rendered judgment as to whether a severance package should be regarded as an early retirement scheme ('regeling voor vervroegde uittreding', hereinafter: RVU). An RVU is a scheme whose sole or almost sole purpose is to provide for one or more benefits to bridge the period between the end of employment and retirement or an earlier pension date. 

On Friday, June 29, 2018, the Cabinet approved the Labor Market Improved Equilibrium Act (‘Wet arbeidsmarkt in balans’; WAB). Under this Act, sector-specific unemployment contributions will be replaced as of 2020 by contributions differentiated according to the type of employment contract. 

On July 12, 2018 UK Prime Minister Theresa May has published the long awaited Brexit White Paper. It is a comprehensive and ambitious plan which aims on the one hand to preserve a frictionless trade between the UK and EU and to resolve the Irish border issue, but also to achieve a UK independent trade policy, where the UK is able to conclude its own free trade agreements with third countries such as the USA. Read more

On October 3, 2018, the Opinion issued by the Advocate General (‘AG’) to the Court of Justice of the European Union (‘CJEU’) in the Morgan Stanley & Co International plc (‘Morgan Stanley’) case (case no. C-165/17) was published. This case concerns the VAT recovery of costs incurred by a fixed establishment that are also used for the activities of a foreign head office. 

On September 25, 2018 the government launched an internet consultation, giving interested parties the opportunity to raise issues that are important to them relating to i) Dutch tax treaty policy and ii) the designation of low-taxed states with a view to – first of all – the application of the measure on Controlled Foreign Companies (‘CFC’s’) proposed on Budget Day. 

We will briefly address these two aspects of the consultation

On October 17, 2018, the Court of Justice of the European Union (hereinafter: CJEU) rendered judgment in the Ryanair case (C-249/17). The case concerned the Irish airline Ryanair, which had incurred costs in respect of its attempt to acquire its competitor Aer Lingus. 

On October 18, 2018, the Court of Justice of the European Union (‘CJEU’) delivered its judgment in the Volkswagen Financial Services (UK) Limited case (C-153/17). The CJEU ruled that in the case of a hire purchase agreement, the supply of a vehicle and supplies of credit can be treated as separate supplies for VAT purposes.

On October 19, 2018, the Supreme Court rendered its final judgment in two important corporate income tax cases, in which it had previously requested a preliminary ruling from the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) and on which it had received a ruling at the beginning of 2018 (see our previous memorandum). 

On May 29, 2017, an amendment to the EU Anti-Tax Avoidance Directive was adopted, so that this directive also focuses on combating hybrid mismatches between EU Member States and third countries (ATAD2). We had already paid attention to this in our previous memorandum. On October 29, 2018, the government launched an internet consultation to give interested parties the opportunity to respond to the draft bill to implement ATAD2. This bill and the changes it will entail for corporate income tax are discussed below. 

On July 17, 2018, the EU and Japan signed a new Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA), with expected entry into force in the first half of 2019 after ratification by the European and Japanese Parliaments.