The scheme allows companies to deduct the "financial goodwill" arising from the acquisition of indirect shareholdings in foreign companies from their corporate tax base. The Commission has found that the measure provided the beneficiaries with a selective economic advantage which cannot be justified under EU state aid rules, and which they must now repay to the Spanish state. Spain did not notify this new interpretation, which extended the scope of an existing scheme, to the Commission for prior state aid scrutiny, as required.