Netherlands: Interest deduction disallowed in “debt push down” structure (Amsterdam Court of Appeal decision)
Taxpayer failed to prove the transaction was business-motivated.
August 27, 2026
The Amsterdam Court of Appeal on August 20, 2026, held that interest expenses on an intra-group “debt push down” following an acquisition were not tax deductible under the interest deduction limitation in Section 10a CITA 1969.
- The case involved a 2017 acquisition of an international retail chain where €140 million of debt was pushed down to a Dutch holding company via an intra-group loan to offset interest against the retail group's Dutch operating profits.
- Reversing a lower court decision, the Court of Appeal held that the taxpayer failed to prove the transaction was business-motivated or that the internal loan was parallel to the external bank financing.
- The Court of Appeal also applied a procedural sanction that reversed and increased the burden of proof because the taxpayer failed to tick the required Section 10a box on its tax return.
Read an August 2026 report prepared by the KPMG member firm in the Netherlands