Rutte: First tax reforms ready by 2016

Prime minister Rutte said this morning that the government will have the first suggestions for the revision of the tax system before the summer of 2015. This goes against the D66 and the CDA who wishes to have a more concrete plan before February 1st. In the prime minister's opinion, decisive action is going to take a little longer The previous tax reform in 2001 took four years. According to Rutte it is the Cabinet's ambition to do this one faster. According to D66 leader Alexander Pechtold, the Cabinet's plan is not concrete, it is at best shifting taxes where we "have to hope, even pray for windfalls". The government does not make choices, he says. Rutte disagrees with this. He mentions that a number of concrete decisions has already been made by the Cabinet. The government wants to drastically reduce the number of deductions, apart from those around pensions and home ownership. He also wants a fairer capital gains tax and changes in the motor vehicle taxes. The government wants to reduce labor taxes by 15 billion euros to create 100 thousand jobs in the long term. The tax system will be simplified. The opposition finds the plan too vague and denounces the lack of financial coverage.