The C$123bn (€76bn) Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan (HOOPP) has revealed itself as the “foreign pension fund” sued by the Dutch authorities for evading €200m in dividend withholding tax payments.
The scheme disputes the allegations, it said in a statement on its website.
Last week, the prosecutor in the Netherlands summoned a foreign pension fund for unlawfully reclaiming dividend withholding tax on Dutch shares between 2013 and 2018.
In September 2019, the tax authorities launched an audit into the pension fund once the suspicion had arisen that it had wrongly reclaimed dividend tax. The total of dividend tax wrongly reclaimed and received by the pension fund exceeds €200m, according to the prosecutor.
The fund in question, the fund for healthcare workers in the Canadian state of Ontario (HOOPP), said in a statement that it “firmly rejects” the claims made by the Dutch authorities.
“HOOPP is surprised and disappointed by this decision and will vigorously defend itself against these allegations,” it said.
The pension fund noted it has been cooperating with the Dutch Tax Authority (Belastingdienst) “for many years” on this issue.
While the Dutch prosecutor claimed HOOPP was not the beneficial owner of the shares in question and was therefore not entitled to the tax refund, the Canadian scheme said it was “confident” that it indeed was the beneficial owner of the shares and therefore entitled to the tax refunds.
According to HOOPP, the case centres on “a dispute over the interpretation of a discrete Dutch tax provision, which HOOPP believes should be solely adjudicated by a tax court” instead of a criminal court.
Asked by IPE, the pension fund declined to elaborate further on the case, citing the ongoing legal process.
“Given this legal process is underway, HOOPP is not able to comment on this tax issue beyond what we have said in our statement,” a HOOPP spokesperson said.
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