THIS IS WHO WE ARE ACTUALLY DEALING WITH...
Dutch provide tax haven for multi-nationals and super-rich
Amsterdam - The Netherlands has allowed itself (that to me sounds like intent!) to become a tax haven for thousands of foreign companies, whose real presence is often little more than an Amsterdam postbox number. While the results are clearly beneficial to the treasury, the potential damage to the country's international standing is great. (Who is in charge of checks and balances in the international financial market? Is there not an international tax police? Who is to blame?)
During the course of 2006, the number of foreign companies establishing a financial presence on Dutch soil rose by 50 per cent over the previous year - or by about 1,600 new companies. A recent study by the Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations (known by its Dutch abbreviation SOMO) found that more than 20,000 multinationals and rich individuals were registered in the Netherlands for tax purposes. It added that the potential for money-laundering was large. (Joe M...are you out there?)
Apart from the Dutch Treasury, which benefits to the tune of 1.2 billion euros (1.5 billion dollars) a year, 132 trust companies and their employees earn considerable sums through the provision of financial services. In 2002, the last year for which figures are available, some 3.6 trillion euros - eight times the Dutch gross domestic product in that year - flowed through the country. SOMO researcher Michiel van Dijk predicted the rising trend in 'mailbox companies' would continue.
A tax change comes into effect next year that cuts tax on income from interest to a mere 5 per cent, as opposed to standard corporation tax at around 30 per cent. Multinationals would thus have an even stronger incentive to conduct their loans to their subsidiaries under the Dutch tax dispensation, charging market rates of interest and payin
g minimal tax on the proceeds. Developing countries were among the losers, Van Dijk said. 'The problem is the availability of the data. We lack the data needed to quantify tax losses to developing countries.' He said the Central Bank had agreed to try to make the data available in the future. (Umm...I don't understand that one...they lack the data needed to quantify tax losses for other countries? However, they have the figures on what the bad guys took? Is this another way of saying, "oh sorry...yeah, your country got screwed, but we don't know how much you really lost anyway, so there's nothing we can do. Bye bye.")
According to the SOMO report, the problem lies partly in the bilateral tax treaties with many other countries concluded by the Dutch government. 'This is a form of aggressive tax competition that is at the cost of other countries rich and poor,' says Francis Weyzig, one of the authors. 'The main conclusion of this report is very simple: the Netherlands is a tax haven,' the authors say.
Apart from depleting the tax base of other - often poorer - countries, the rerouting of capital flows is often a realistic option only for large multinationals, who thus gain an unfair advantage over their smaller competitors. The report notes that many of the trails from the Enron scandal in the United States and the Parmalat scandal in Italy ran through Dutch 'mailbox companies.' And it points out that well-known companies like Ikea, Airbus manufacturer EADS and Mittal Steel, have their headquarters in the Netherlands, despite being run from outside the country. (I know there are people out there with IKEA items...start writing letters!)
EADS, a flagship company for the French and German governments, is a case in point. The company website provides a string of telephone numbers and contact details in France, Germany, the United States, Britain and Spain, but not one in the Netherlands, even though the company is headquartered in Amsterdam. However, the companies avoiding taxation in the world's poorer countries are more obscure. 'Secret bank accounts and offshore trusts in tax havens provide wealthy elites and companies with the means to escape their tax obligations,' the report says. The researchers estimate that half the cash and liquid assets held by the rich of Latin America is held in tax havens. The figure for the Middle East is a staggering 70 per cent.
During the course of 2006, the number of foreign companies establishing a financial presence on Dutch soil rose by 50 per cent over the previous year - or by about 1,600 new companies. A recent study by the Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations (known by its Dutch abbreviation SOMO) found that more than 20,000 multinationals and rich individuals were registered in the Netherlands for tax purposes. It added that the potential for money-laundering was large. (Joe M...are you out there?)
Apart from the Dutch Treasury, which benefits to the tune of 1.2 billion euros (1.5 billion dollars) a year, 132 trust companies and their employees earn considerable sums through the provision of financial services. In 2002, the last year for which figures are available, some 3.6 trillion euros - eight times the Dutch gross domestic product in that year - flowed through the country. SOMO researcher Michiel van Dijk predicted the rising trend in 'mailbox companies' would continue.
A tax change comes into effect next year that cuts tax on income from interest to a mere 5 per cent, as opposed to standard corporation tax at around 30 per cent. Multinationals would thus have an even stronger incentive to conduct their loans to their subsidiaries under the Dutch tax dispensation, charging market rates of interest and payin
g minimal tax on the proceeds. Developing countries were among the losers, Van Dijk said. 'The problem is the availability of the data. We lack the data needed to quantify tax losses to developing countries.' He said the Central Bank had agreed to try to make the data available in the future. (Umm...I don't understand that one...they lack the data needed to quantify tax losses for other countries? However, they have the figures on what the bad guys took? Is this another way of saying, "oh sorry...yeah, your country got screwed, but we don't know how much you really lost anyway, so there's nothing we can do. Bye bye.")According to the SOMO report, the problem lies partly in the bilateral tax treaties with many other countries concluded by the Dutch government. 'This is a form of aggressive tax competition that is at the cost of other countries rich and poor,' says Francis Weyzig, one of the authors. 'The main conclusion of this report is very simple: the Netherlands is a tax haven,' the authors say.
Apart from depleting the tax base of other - often poorer - countries, the rerouting of capital flows is often a realistic option only for large multinationals, who thus gain an unfair advantage over their smaller competitors. The report notes that many of the trails from the Enron scandal in the United States and the Parmalat scandal in Italy ran through Dutch 'mailbox companies.' And it points out that well-known companies like Ikea, Airbus manufacturer EADS and Mittal Steel, have their headquarters in the Netherlands, despite being run from outside the country. (I know there are people out there with IKEA items...start writing letters!)
EADS, a flagship company for the French and German governments, is a case in point. The company website provides a string of telephone numbers and contact details in France, Germany, the United States, Britain and Spain, but not one in the Netherlands, even though the company is headquartered in Amsterdam. However, the companies avoiding taxation in the world's poorer countries are more obscure. 'Secret bank accounts and offshore trusts in tax havens provide wealthy elites and companies with the means to escape their tax obligations,' the report says. The researchers estimate that half the cash and liquid assets held by the rich of Latin America is held in tax havens. The figure for the Middle East is a staggering 70 per cent.
4 comments:
The dirty hand money can't never come clean without going through the Federal Reseves Bank System where the new bucks originate. Every money laundering shop has to have a PO Box in US to make that receiver money point connection. The Guttenboes in Georgia is scrutinized by the Congress as the money laundering and tax evasions point of shelter (POS) for the Aruban government. Their homes can be searched with the court warrants at any given time for any questionable financial records. No Aruba judge like Bob Witt can limit the search to their PO Box only. That is who the reason why Aruba will die soon because their tax evasion havens are destroyed.
Just look at the credit card services companies, they all use the PO Boxes as their point of shelter (POS). They are legal by the business laws. A church, a non-profit organization or a Congressman can live in a PO Box. No questions will be asked. PO Boxes is the money machine invented by the US Postal Service. They finance the new constructions of the post office buildings across the country.
deb357,
You're right, but then again, the same should apply to other countries. But look what happened with Enron and Worldcom (to name a few). These are US companies, who used these types of constructions to evade taxes. The joke is that there isn't one medium to large US company that doesn't make use of all these tax-evasion schemes.
I'll even give you a simpler example, did youknow that when a US company goes, with an Incentive group, say their top Sales people, to a vacation destination, and they stay for 7 days. Did you know that if they have a 2 hour meeting on at least 3 of those days, that the company can write off the WHOLE trip (flight, hotel expenses, breakfasts, lunches, dinners, evening parties, watersports, etc) of as a BUSINESS TRIP. This as per the IRA. I know, because I have been on trips like that (Aruba, Puerto Rico, Paris, Rome, etc). The company will put 'meetings' on 3 days from 6:00 am - 8:00 am (you don't HAVE to attend even), and the rest of the day is party, sight -seeing and fun.
Since the Incentive business is the biggest growing part of the tourism sector, that would mean BILLIONS of Dollars each year that do go, LEGALLY mind you, to countries like Aruba, Puerto Rico, etc. That is also how the companies find out about 'legal' PO Boxes "schemes".
John C.
You don't have to be a US citizen living in US to lease a PO Box. The US Postal Service keeps the loophole open despite of the scrutiny by the US Government. The PO Boxes monoploy machine keeps the US Postal Office ahead of the game from UPS and FedEx. Things get even strange enough, some US hotels in Aruba do have PO Boxes service for the tourists. You can tell things had something to do with the laundering and tax evasion of the gambling money and winnings.
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