De svenska riktade ränteavdragsbegränsningsreglerna - En undersökning om reglernas förenlighet med EU-rätten, med anledning av Lexel-målet.

Sammanfattning: The Swedish interest deduction limitation rules compatibility with EU-law have been criticized for a long time. The rules are applicable to intra-group loans and are aimed to both protect the Swedish Tax base and to prevent tax avoidance through the use of artificial arrangements. According to the preparatory works the purpose of the rules was not to target groups of companies within Sweden. This is because such companies typically have access to Swedish intra-group transfers. When profits easily can be transfered through intra-group transfers, there is no point in using an artificial interest arrangement for the same result. Consequently the rules were overwhelmingly used when a cross-border element was present. Since the judgment from the European Court of Justice in the Lexel-case, it is settled that the Swedish rules applicable at the time were not compatible with the freedom of establishment. This paper partly aims to go through the different conditions that played an important role in the judgment. To achieve this purpose both the Swedish rules and the relevant areas of EU-law will be examined. The Swedish interest deduction limitation rules reviewed by the European Court of Justice have been replaced and are no longer in force. The new rules share many similarities however and the Lexel-case is therefore expected to also effect the interpretation of the new rules, to what extent remains to be seen. In the event that the new rules could be justified by the need to prevent tax avoidance, it is still possible that they would not pass the proportionality test. Finally this paper also discusses the available legal remedies following a new judgment from the European Court of Justice.