The very hungry caterpillar: how multinationals constantly lobby for tax reductions

by Esmé Berkhout, Gijs Verbraak, Vincent Kiezebrink and Jasper van Teeffelen

Read our Dutch article ‘Afschaffing dividendbelasting, wie wint er nou?’

On Thursday, 14 December, the Dutch Lower House will hold a hearing on the dividend tax, a subject which SOMO has already covered in the past. This hearing was initiated by the Dutch political parties SP, GroenLinks and PvdA.

The dividend tax concerns 1.4 billion euros per year. But this hearing is not about the 1.4 billion euros that primary school teachers are requesting from this government to reduce their workloads and raise salaries. No, this is about the 1.4 billion that the Dutch treasury would forfeit through the abolition of the dividend tax. The earlier explanation of Prime Minister Mark Rutte, Minister Wopke Hoekstra and State Secretary Menno Snel about why the dividend tax should be abolished simply doesn’t hold water.

Read the entire opinion article (Dutch only).