Tax haven companies not excluded from Dutch state aid

Companies whose business is organized in international tax havens are entitled to claim Covid-19 support money from the Dutch government. According to sources which spoke to public broadcaster NOS on Thursday, a proposal to exclude companies from receiving government aid had been put forward by trade union FNV and left-wing opposition party GroenLinks.

Denmark, France and Poland have all put forward rules to prevent companies incorporated in international tax havens from receiving government aid. The FNV and GroenLinks had been aiming for similar blacklists to be drawn up in the Netherlands ahead of the country rolling out new economic assistance next month.

The Dutch proposal reportedly fell flat and criticized for not being feasible after it went before the Cabinet. One reason was because of the large Dutch companies which also have a branch operating in one of the countries on the European Union's tax haven blacklist, the broadcaster said, pointing to employment agency Randstad which operates an office in Oman.

In effect, the Cabinet's decision rules out the possibility that businesses benefiting from low taxes abroad will be excluded from any extension of the NOW scheme, a government assistance program that allow business owners to be reimbursed up to 90 percent of their wage costs if they expect to lose at least 20 percent turnover over a three-month period due to the coronavirus crisis.