Taxpayers make use of the possibilities in the law to avoid tax. For example, they use differences in tax systems in different countries. There are also taxpayers who pay less tax in violation of the law. For example, by deliberately not declaring income. The national government is taking various measures against this.
The national government is taking various concrete measures to combat tax avoidance and tax evasion. For example:
- in 2019, around € 38.5 billion in interest, royalties and dividends went to low-tax countries via the Netherlands. These are countries that levy no or too little (less than 9%) taxes. The government is taking the following measures:
- Withholding tax on interest and royalties.Some countries do not or hardly levy taxes. From 2021, the Netherlands will levy tax on payments of interest or royalties to a company within the same group that is located in a low-tax country.
- Additional dividend withholding tax.
With this, payments of profit distributions are also additionally taxed if they go to countries that levy no or too little tax. The measure will take effect in 2024. According to provisional figures for 2021, only € 6 billion went to low-tax countries in that year. It is expected that € 4.4 billion can be tackled by the additional withholding tax that will take effect in 2024.
- With the Multilateral Instrument (MLI), the Netherlands can change the tax treaty with a large group of countries at once without negotiations. This is to prevent tax evasion. The Netherlands is also stricter in this regard than many other countries.