sThe interim government has expressed its support for a plan by the Group of Seven major economies to introduce a minimum corporate tax rate of 15% worldwide. This initiative was launched in an effort to reduce tax evasion worldwide.
The plan forces tech giants like Apple, Facebook, Google and Amazon to pay taxes in the countries where they generate their revenue. Currently, they only have to pay taxes in the countries they are in where tax evasion is possible.
The strategy will also end the so-called “race to the bottom” in which countries compete to keep their tax rates as low as possible to attract businesses. The agreement was signed in London on Saturday by the finance ministers of the Group of Seven, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United States and the United Kingdom.
The outgoing Cabinet expressed its satisfaction with the agreement: “The Netherlands supports these schemes. In this way we can effectively tackle tax evasion,” Finance Minister Hans Wilbro wrote on Twitter.
The Netherlands supports these plans. This is how we effectively deal with tax evasion. The agreements are in line with a number of recent actions that NL has taken and will continue to address to address tax evasion. I will do my best for the speedy implementation of these agreements in the EU https://t.co/73gHHgc1Ox
– Hans Willbrief (@stasVijlbrief) June 5, 2021
Filbro also said he is working to implement the agreement in the European Union as quickly as possible. All G7 countries already have a corporate tax rate of 15 percent, but some EU countries are below this level. Corporate tax rates are only 12.5% in Ireland and Cyprus and only 9% in Hungary.
The Netherlands is also known as a tax haven for large corporations. Big companies such as Netflix and the four largest tobacco companies British American Tobacco, Philip Morris, Japan Tobacco and Imperial Brand used shell companies to evade taxes in the Netherlands.
Philbrew De Nieuws told BV earlier this week that if companies start paying more taxes, the average citizen could end up with less.
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