It’s easy to play the virtuous when taking advantage of tax dumping to profit at the expense of other countries.
Leading the “frugal 4”, the Netherlands are champions of this practice as shown by the latest report from the Tax Justice Network.
A new analysis published shows that EU governments could raise nearly 20 billion dollars in corporate taxes from the largest companies by immediately forcing multinationals to publish their country-by-country reporting data.
As the European Union prepares to set up a recovery fund that could provide the necessary support to the countries most severely affected by the pandemic, the Tax Justice Network has criticized the hypocrisy of Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte: the Netherlands’ tax haven model annually costs EU member states billions in corporate taxes.
The Tax Justice Network calls on EU governments to immediately require multinational companies to publish their country-by-country reporting data.
Multinationals subject to the OECD’s country-by-country reporting pay approximately 200 billion dollars in taxes in the EU each year — a 10% increase would likely generate around 20 billion dollars in corporate tax revenue.
This transparency would also ensure public visibility of the full extent of profit shifting to the Netherlands and other EU member states, allowing citizens to hold EU governments accountable and providing the basis for deeper reforms needed in EU corporate tax rules.
Alex Cobham, CEO of the Tax Justice Network, said:
“The notion that the Netherlands can be labeled ‘frugal’ while depriving EU countries of billions in corporate taxes each year — revenues desperately needed to tackle the costs of the pandemic — is absurd and deeply shocking. Historical OECD data released two weeks ago finally confirms that far from being a leader in tax responsibility, the Netherlands is one of the world’s biggest catalysts for corporate tax abuse.”
