Recently, Aart Gerritsen, Associate Professor at Erasmus School of Economics, appeared in an article by De Telegraaf to give his views on the hugely low-taxed pension assets in the Netherlands. 'A cut in those "pension subsidies" would save the government billions,' he argues.
It has long been the case that tax on pension assets in the Netherlands is very low. 'There is actually no good reason for that tax advantage,' Gerritsen says. 'You obviously want to encourage people to save enough pension, but that choice is often not in the hands of employees. After all, the deposit is determined in collective bargaining. Moreover, according to international research, tax incentives help very little in this respect.'
In other developed countries, however, it is often the case that pension contributions are taxed. 'Moreover, the gross pension contribution remains roughly the same. Hence, employees themselves do not notice the difference, while the government can tax earlier,' he adds. According to Gerritsen, the low taxation could be compensated by making pensioners pay the same amount of income tax as working people, for instance.
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You can download the full article from De Telegraaf, 25 June 2024, above.