Nearly 15,000 Dutch questionable tax deals after Starbucks ruling

The judgement made by the European Commission over the Starbucks tax agreement could have far reaching consequence across the country, with nearly 15,000 such deals having already been made. Tax authorities have seen the period between 1991 and 2014 as the main problem era, with billions at stake. Brussels has now examined the so-called Dutch tax ruling and has found that Starbucks has siphoned off 30 million in profit tax over the past five years that needs to be recovered by the Netherlands. Economics editor of Trouw, Jan Kleinnijenhuis stated that the 25 million Starbucks must pay back is only a fraction of the advantage they have enjoyed. They must pay it back to the Netherlands, the country that made the tax evasion possible. The European Commission has set an example with the Starbucks ruling, but does not have the capacity to investigate each one of the other 15,000 perceived irregularities, according to the editor. The government is surprised by the European Commission's findings and is studying the ruling. With many multinationals seeing the Netherlands as a tax haven, there is still appeal to settle in the Netherlands.