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Santrauka. Europos Teisingumo Teismo praktikoje tiesioginių mokesčių srityje ryškėja nauja tendencija: bylos, kuriose keliamas nacionalinių mokesčių taisyklių atitikties pirminei Europos Bendrijos teisei klausimas, vis dažniau sprendžiamos palankiai valstybėms narėms. Ankstesni Europos Teisingumo Teismo sprendimai paprastai būdavo palankūs mokesčių mokėtojams. Todėl autorius šiame straipsnyje nagrinėja, kokią įtaką nacionaliniam tiesioginiam apmokestinimui turi Europos Bendrijos sutartyje įtvirtintos pagrindinės laisvės, trumpai apžvelgia Europos Teisingumo Teismo nuostatas plėtojant netiesioginės diskriminacijos bei apribojimų koncepcijas ir galiausiai apsistoja analizuodamas atitinkamą Europos Teisingumo Teismo praktiką, susijusią su dividendų apmokestinimu. Straipsnyje autorius neapsiriboja vien tik abstrakčiu Europos Bendrijos teisės reikalavimų tiesioginio apmokestinimo srityje tyrimu, bet gilinasi ir į tas su dividendų apmokestinimu susijusias Lietuvos Respublikos mokesčių teisės normas, kurios labiausiai pažeidžiamos ir todėl galbūt prieštarauja acquis communautaire. Although direct taxation falls within the competence of Member States, the latter must none the less exercise that competence consistently with Community law. This phrase probably has been used by the European Court of Justice in nearly each case where the national direct tax rule was questioned on the basis of the Fundamental Freedoms of the EC Treaty. Having no intention to raise any doubts as to the soundness and validity of the aforesaid phrase, one may ask another what are in fact those requirements of Community law that Member States should follow when exercising their competence in the area of direct taxation. Thus, being inspired by this question the author in this article first discusses the impact of the Fundamental Freedoms to the national direct taxation, then reveals the concepts of indirect discrimination and restrictions of non-discriminative nature, and finally analyses in depth the national dividend taxation rules of the Lithuanian Law on company profit tax as well as provides his opinion as to compatibility of these rules to the relevant jurisprudence of European of Court of Justice. Author thinks that certain provisions of Lithuanian Law on Company Profit Tax provide more favourable tax treatment of residents than of non-residents and are therefore capable of creating discrimination. Futhermore, certain Lithuanian taxation rules potentially create a restriction that is prohibited by the EC Treaty because they have an effect of dissuading taxpayers from exploiting their rights and liberties enshrined in the EC Treaty or make the employment of the Fundamental Freedoms less attractive. Therefore the necessary amendments to the respective legal acts should be made so that not only potential discrimination, but also a potential restriction on the Fundamental Freedoms would be excluded.

Pabrėždamas pirminės Europos Bendrijos teisės svarbą nacionaliniam tiesioginiam apmokestinimui, šiame straipsnyje autorius, remdamasis atitinkama Europos Teisingumo teismo praktika, stengiasi atskleisti Europos Bendrijos steigimo sutartyje įtvirtintų pagrindinių laisvių ir jas vienijančio diskriminacijos draudimo principo teisinį turinį, apibrėžti šio principo pritaikymo galimybes apmokestinimo srityje ir taip apčiuopti besiformuojančias nacionalinių gyventojų pajamų mokesčių įstatymų vienodinimo užuomazgas bei tendencijas. Straipsnio pirmojoje dalyje pateikiama gana detali svarbiausių Europos Teisingumo teismo bylų gyventojų apmokestinimo srityje apžvalga, o straipsnio antrojoje dalyje analizuojamos atitinkamos Lietuvos Respublikos gyventojų pajamų mokesčio įstatymo nuostatos, kurios potencialiai gali sukurti tam tikrų problemų gyventojams pasinaudoti savo mokestinėmis teisėmis, kurias gina pirminė Europos Bendrijos teisė. Straipsnio pabaigoje pateikiamos išvados, glaustai apibendrinančios Europos teisingumo teismo sukurtas novacijas mokesčių teisėje ir jų reikšmę gyventojų pajamų apmokestinimui Lietuvoje. By emphasizing the importance of primary European Community law to national direct taxation, in this article, the author draws on relevant practice of the European Court of Justice, makes an effort to define the legal content of main freedoms, established in the European Community founding treaty, and the principle of prohibition to discriminate that unifies them; the author establishes possibilities for applying this principle in the area of taxation and this way grasp appearing basis and trends in unification of national personal income tax legislation. The first part of the article presents a fairly detailed overview of the most important European Court of Justice cases in the area of personal taxation, while the second part of the article analyzes relevant provisions of the Republic of Lithuania Law on personal income tax, which potentially can create certain problems preventing the residents from exercising their taxation rights protected by primary European Community law. In the end of the article, the author presents conclusions, which concisely summarize European Court of Justice’s innovations in the area of tax law and their implications for personal income taxation in Lithuania.

Straipsnyje nagrinėjama vadinamųjų „užsienio dividendų“ mokestinės diskriminacijos problema. Lietuvos Respublikos pelno mokesčio įstatymas apmokestinimo tikslais diferencijuoja dividendus, kuriuos Lietuvos įmonės paskirsto kitoms Lietuvos įmonėms (akcininkėms), ir dividendus, kuriuos Lietuvos įmonės paskirsto kitoms užsienio įmonėms (įskaitant Europos Sąjungos valstybių narių įmones kaip akcininkes), pastarųjų dividendų nenaudai. Analogiškai diferencijuojami dividendai, kuriuos Lietuvos įmonės, kaip akcininkės, gauna iš kitų Lietuvos įmonių, ir dividendai, kuriuos Lietuvos įmonės, kaip akcininkės, gauna iš kitų užsienio įmonių (įskaitant Europos Sąjungos valstybių narių įmones). Autoriaus nuomone, tokia dividendų apmokestinimo tvarka, kai „vietiniai“ dividendai apmokestinami palankiau nei „užsienio“ dividendai, akivaizdžiai diskriminuoja „užsienio kapitalo“ Lietuvos įmones ir todėl potencialiai prieštarauja acquis communautaire reikalavimams. The article analyses the problem of tax discrimination of the so-called "foreign dividends". The Lithuanian Law on Profit Tax treats differently the dividends which are distributed to a foreign company (shareholder), on the one hand, and the dividends distributed to a Lithuanian company (shareholder), on the other hand, in favour to the latter dividends. The same differentiation applies to the dividends which are received by a Lithuanian shareholder from a foreign company, on the one hand, and the dividends which are received from a Lithuanian company, on the other. Such a differentiation of dividends, depending on the nationality of a shareholder or the nationality of a company distributing the dividends, creates the serious restrictions to the free movement of capital and is in an obvious conflict with the concept of European internal market. Therefore it is suggested that such dividend taxation rules, when "foreign dividends" are treated in a less favourable manner than the "national dividends", are in a potential violation of acquis communautaire. The author argues that such "foreign dividends" shall be treated for tax purposes in the same manner as "national dividends". In support to his position the author analyzes the relevant provisions of the EC Treaty related to the free movement of capital and illustrates his arguments with a recent jurisprudence of the European Court of Justice. In his conclusions the author notes that the article covers only a small part of a "big problem", i.e., there could be many more Lithuanian tax rules which may be disputed under the fundamental freedom provisions of the EC Treaty. This is so because not only those national tax law provisions which differentiate taxpayers depending on the place where their capital is invested, but also the provisions which differentiate the tax payers depending on their place of residence, may be disputed in the light of the EC Treaty provisions. The latter problem, i. e., the application of different tax rules to residents and non-residents, is of particular importance and complexity, because the national tax laws of almost all European countries recognise such a differentiation (for tax purposes) between resident and non-resident. However, this is often not a case under the European Community law, because such a differentiation may constitute to the indirect discrimination of a foreign national, or it may amount to the illegal restriction of the fundamental freedoms of the EC Treaty. Therefore the Lithuanian taxation rules, even if they are legal and "innocent" from the point of view of national tax law, in all cases shall also be examined from the perspective of the European Community law.