Five billion euro tax relief plan to begin next year

The governments 5 billion euros tax plan survived the Eerste Kamer, Senate, on Tuesday and will be implemented in 2016, news wire ANP reports. The tax plan includes the slower dismantling labor tax cuts, more money for tax breaks for the elderly and a proposal to shift 4 billion euros income tax to municipal taxes. Finance Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem believes that the tax breaks will help the economic recovery and create 35 thousand new jobs. The cabinet of the VVD and PvdA had to pull out all the stops to get their tax plan through the Tweede Kamer, lower house of parliament, before 2016 and gain enough support from opposition parties to get it through the Eerste Kamer as the coalition does not have a majority there. After a long struggle and a number of adjustments, the D66 and CDA finally agreed to support the plan. Opponents in the Eerste Kamer are concerned that these tax breaks will mainly benefit employed people and this will increase the division with non-workers. It will also increase the gap between single income households and two income households, they fear.