The Austrian Supreme Administrative Court (VwGH) recently held that the subject of attribution of dividend income is the person who economically owns the underlying shares at the time when the dividend distribution resolution is made. Subsequent dispositions of the shares (e.g., sales “cum" dividend) cannot change this and would hence not entitle the actual recipient of the dividend to claim a withholding tax refund. This solution deviates from the opinion previously held by the Austrian Ministry of Finance and the Federal Fiscal Court (BFG), which had attempted to reconcile income attribution and stock exchange practice by relying on economic ownership on the “cum day". Georg Kofler puts the Austrian Supreme Administrative Court’s decision in context of that practice and analyzes its impact, also from the perspective of tax treaties.
