Samsom in College Tour

Multinational companies who use the Netherlands to avoid high taxes in their own country must be curbed. In the College Tour (NTR) episode on Friday, Labour (PvdA) leader Diederik Samsom said, "I think it's a bad idea that the Netherlands is a tax haven; that we do not impose enough taxes on companies which do not do anything in our country but only channel their money."

"I want to change something about it. Step by step we are going to tackle this scourge."

Thus was the reply of the Labour leader in the program on the question of whether his party wanted to do anything about the tax evasion by mailbox firms along the Amsterdam South axis.

The Netherlands is used by multinationals like Apple and Starbucks to annually - according to some estimates – channel thousands of billions of euros. In this way, they can prevent having to pay considerably more taxes in many other countries.

Samsom believes the royal family should also turn in some money. "In principle I think that the tax exemption for the Royal members should be abolished in the long term."

He confesses that he "has never been a true Orangist”. "I even wanted to call myself a Republican once. In my heart, I feel that it is not right that the Head of State gets that position by heritage.”

College Tour airs every Friday at 8:30 pm on the Netherlands channel 3.