Dutch gov't to investigate 4,000 tax deals

State Secretary Menno Snel of Finance ordered an investigation into 4 thousand tax deals the Tax Authority made with companies and organization. He wants to make sure that the proper procedures were followed in making these so-called tax rulings, NOS reports.

This follows a revelation from the Paradise Papers on Tuesday that the proper procedures were not followed in one such ruling made with American company Procter & Gamble. A tax inspector from the Rotterdam tax office gave the company permission to move 676 million dollars to the Cayman Islands untaxed, through which the Dutch treasury missed out on 169 million dollars in taxes. He did so on his own, without submitting the ruling to a special team of ruling specialists as is stated in the rules.

In a letter to the Tweede Kamer, the lower house of Dutch parliament, Snel called breaking the rules unacceptable, according to NOS. Four thousand rulings "with a cross-border effect" will now be investigated, he wrote. He also asked the Court of Auditors to launch an investigation into tax evasion.