Press Release: State aid: Belgian tax on collective investment undertakings – Commission decides no state aid involved

Acting under the state aid rules of the EC Treaty, the Commission on 26 April 2006 decided that the Belgian tax on collective investment undertakings (CIUs), about which investment funds in Luxembourg had lodged a complaint, did not constitute state aid. Unlike the complainants, which viewed the tax as an export aid, the Commission took the view that the non-taxation of Belgian CIUs as regards units marketed by them abroad stemmed from the internal rationale of the new tax regime in force since January 2004.