On 21 January 2026, the Mons Court of Appeal (Bergen) denied the participation exemption (Dividend Received Deduction or ‘DRD’) to a passive Belgian holding company on the grounds of the specific anti-abuse provision of Article 203, §1, 7° of the Belgian Income Tax Code (‘BITC’), which transposes the anti-abuse clause of the amended Parent-Subsidiary Directive (PSD) (Directive 2011/96/EU, as amended by Directive 2015/121/EU). This article situates the judgment within the broader EU law framework governing abuse of directive benefits, with particular reference to the landmark Danish Cases decided by the Court of Justice of the European Union in February 2019, the Nordcurrent group Case (ECJ 3 April 2025, C-228/24) and the recent Opinion of Advocate General Kokott in Neo Group (Case C-203/25, Opinion of 21 May 2026). The article then analyses the sustainability of purely passive holding structures under Belgian and EU law, and maps the implications of the Mons judgment for future corporate planning
EC Tax Review