Multinational companies which conduct business in the Netherlands will soon be forced to pay taxes on their profits, instead of creatively using an accounting loophole to avoid tax liabilities in the country. The ruling Dutch cabinet, led by third-term Prime Minister Mark Rutte, has reportedly agreed to back an initiative from the left wing opposition parties, according to broadcaster NOS and newspaper AD, both citing unnamed sources.
dividend tax
Sep 11 '19 16:14
Aug 26 '19 13:10
Today labor party PvdA is celebrating 125 years of social democracy in the Netherlands. The party's predecessor SDAP was established on 26 August 1894. PvdA leader Lodewijk Asscher read the SDAP's founding minutes and found them still astonishingly relevant today, he said in an interview with newspaper AD.
Nov 29 '18 10:50
Shell has not paid any profit tax in the Netherlands for years, despite earning billions of euros in the country every year, newspaper Trouw reports based on "well informed" sources and a confidential internal document from the Ministry of Finance.
Oct 17 '18 08:58
The new plans of the Rutte III government now that dividend tax will not be abolished, can not count on the support of the opposition parties, was revealed during a parliamentary debate on Tuesday evening. The opposition parties were all clearly irritated, NU.nl reports.
Oct 16 '18 08:16
The abolition of the dividend tax will definitely not happen, Prime Minister Mark Rutte announced after a coalition meeting on Monday evening. The government and the coalition parties reconsidered and decided to definitively reverse the most controversial measure in the government agreement. "The fact is that support for this measure was limited", Rutte said after the meeting, NU.nl reports.
Oct 10 '18 12:50
Minister Wopke Hoekstra of Finance will skip te autumn meeting of the International Monetary Fund in Bali this year, so that he can be available for consultations on the possible abolition of dividend tax, his spokesperson said, ANP reports.
Oct 8 '18 12:20
The Supreme Court shot down one of the Dutch government's main arguments for abolishing dividend tax. The Netherlands' dividend tax is legally very sustainable and not discriminatory for foreign investors. It therefore does not have to be abolished to prevent lawsuits and repayment of taxes, Advocate General Peter Wattel of the Supreme Court wrote in advice to the government, NOS reports.
Sep 28 '18 11:50
A group of students occupied the P.C. Hoofthuis of the University of Amsterdam on Friday. They are protesting against government budget cuts and the "erosion of education", ANP reports.
The students, calling themselves Autonomous University Postcolonial House, barricaded the entrances of the building on Spuistraat and hung a red banner from the roof. The banner reads: 'Autonomous University'.
Sep 21 '18 14:00
All but one of the opposition parties signed a GroenLinks legislative proposal to reverse the proposed abolition of dividend tax in 2020. With most of the opposition parties being against the controversial measure, it seems all but certain that the abolition of the dividend tax will play major roll in the Senate elections next year, NU.nl reports.
The legislative proposal was supported by 71 parliamentary seats - GroenLinks, PVV, SP, PvdA, PvdD, 50Plus, Denk and FvD. Only the SGP, 3 seats, did not sign it.
Sep 19 '18 10:20
GroenLinks, SP and PvdA, the three largest left-wing parties in the Tweede Kamer, together presented an alternative budget that puts "people above multinationals" on Wednesday. They call for more investments in society and in the "livelihood of all Dutch people", Het Parool reports.
Sep 19 '18 09:34
Despite economic setbacks that threaten from the Brexit and United States president Donald Trump's trade wars, this is a logical time to give "something back" to the Dutch, Prime Minister Mark Rutte said about the budget and the government's plans for next year, NU.nl reports.
Sep 13 '18 08:48
Unilever has a plan B for compensating British shareholders should the Netherlands not scrap dividend tax as the government plans to do. The British-Dutch company assumes that dividend tax will be a thing of the past in the Netherlands by 2020, but even if it isn't, this plan will allow Unilever to set up its head office in Rotterdam without shareholders losing out, NOS reports.
Sep 6 '18 14:30
The primary school teachers behind trade union PO in Actie is calling for a national strike involving all government departments on October 2nd. They want police officers, nurses, Defense personnel and teachers to strike together in The Hague, they wrote in an open letter, NOS reports.
Aug 31 '18 13:50
The government parties VVD, CDA, D66 and ChristenUnie reached an agreement on the budget for 2019 and agreements were made about how dividend tax will be abolished, the parties said after a final meeting on Thursday evening. The parties would give no details about their agreements. That will be presented on Budget Day, the third Thursday in September, NOS reports.
Jun 20 '18 07:58
Prime Minister Mark Rutte refused to answer substantive questions about a tax deal between Shell and the Tax Authority in the Tweede Kamer on Tuesday, leaving parliamentarians furious.
Jun 19 '18 08:12
Like Shell, Unilever also came up with a construction that should ensure that its British shareholders will not have to pay dividend tax now that the Dutch-British company will be based in the Netherlands, RTL Nieuws reports.
Jun 18 '18 14:40
The Tweede Kamer, the lower house of Dutch parliament, wants the government to explain a controversial deal that Shell made with the Dutch tax authorities in 2005. As a result of this deal, Shell's British shareholders are exempt from dividend tax in the Netherlands, through which the Dutch treasury lost out on over 7 billion euros, newspaper Trouw reported on Saturday.
Apr 26 '18 08:20
The entire opposition, with the exception of the SGP, supported a motion of censure against Prime Minister Mark Rutte in a parliamentary debate about secret memos surrounding the Rutte III government's decision to abolish dividend tax, NU.nl reports.
Apr 25 '18 09:37
Officials from the Ministry of Finance expressed serious doubts about the abolition of the dividend tax during the Rutte III government formation, according to secret memos on this topic that the government released under pressure on Tuesday, AD reports.
Apr 20 '18 10:57
During the government formation, documents were drawn up about the controversial abolition of the dividend tax - tax companies pay on profits paid out to shareholders, the Ministry of Finance confirmed to Trouw. Previously Prime Minster Mark Rutte said that the party leaders do not recall the existence of such documents, NU.nl reports.
The Ministry of Finances refuses to make the documents public, Trouw writes.
Sep 24 '14 11:35
The national deficit went up to €9.4 billion in the first half of 2014. This is €5.1 billion higher than the same period last year, the Central Bureau for Statistics (CBS). According to the CBS, this rise is because telecom frequency auctions, which started in 2013, are now dropping away.
