International

SP leader Emile Roemer is urging the government to put a stop to tax agreements with multinationals, as long as uncertainty exists as to whether all of laws are being adhered to. “Everyone has to pay normal tax in the Netherlands, apart apparently from the  multinationals,” he says. “For them the red carpet’s rolled out and agreements are made so that they can pay the least tax possible. Because of this the Netherlands is missing out on at least €5.5 billion.   That money could enable us to eliminate the need to pay part of their health care costs at point of care and increase people’s wages.  No more sweetheart deals: put people before multinationals.”

In Roemer’s view, these Advance Tax Rulings (ATRs) are too shady to be allowed to continue. “Nobody can monitor the tax deals, so we don’t know whether the multinationals are being favoured over ordinary people. Even Parliament isn’t allowed to look into them.”

That ATRs don’t always comply with the law is shown by the fact that in the case of Starbucks the deal was labelled ‘illegal state aid’ by the European Commission because it extended fiscal advantages to the company which were not available to other taxpayers. The same was true of the ruling in the case of the manufacturers of Pampers and Gillette.