To the anger of many people, the Tax and Customs Administration has made far-reaching agreements with Uber about taxes to be paid. In the programme Spraakmakers on NPO Radio 1, Peter Kavelaars, Professor of Economics of Taxation at Erasmus School of Economics, is a guest to give his opinion on these events.
Recently, it was revealed that the Tax and Customs Administration has made agreements about the taxes Uber would have to pay in the Netherlands. It is suggested that this was done in order to attract the headquarters of Uber to the Netherlands. Professor Kavelaars states that to his knowledge, this way of dealing with a large multinational has never happened before. However, it is worthwhile to make such agreements, as long as they do not involve deliberate delaying tactics and other measures to reduce taxes.
Wrong role of the Tax and Customs Administration
However, the Dutch tax system has many uncertainties. This is understandable, as it is not possible to regulate taxes in detail for a wide variety of situations and companies. It is, according to Kavelaars, desirable to remove these uncertainties for companies. The state of affairs with Uber is unacceptable: 'providing information, interfering with the business, protecting the business: this is not the role of the Tax and Customs Administration'. Kavelaars suspects that the Tax and Customs Administration went this far because of the fear that Uber would leave the Netherlands and thus take away employment and economic activity.
- Professor
- More information
You can listen to the broadcast of NPO Radio 1, 12 July 2022, here.
