International

The club of rich industrialised countries, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) today presented its proposals to counter tax evasion and tax avoidance to the G20, the informal body which brings together Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors from twenty major economies. Should these proposals be adopted, the SP believes that an end will be brought to many of the practices of the Netherlands and others who foster such tax dodging. ‘The OECD wants to put an end to the secret agreements between multinationals and tax offices,’ says De Jong. ‘That’s a matter which both the Dutch and the European Parliaments have hammered away at for years. According to the action plan the OECD intends to inventorise its member states’ practices and by the end of 2014 at the latest establish a system of oversight. After that states will be obliged to fully inform each other about all tax agreements. That’s an important step forwards, but I want to see this information then being made available to parliaments, because otherwise we will still have no way of gaining any insight, in our role as the people’s representatives, into what precisely is going on.’

According to SP leader Emile Roemer the European Commission’s recent proposal for a European Banking Union is a massive step in the wrong direction. ‘If it’s left to the Commission,’ he explains, ‘the Dutch banks which we have kept afloat with our taxes will soon be paying up to save banks in other countries.’