AMSTERDAM – Europe wants to put a stop to the so-called PO Box companies.
Soon, foreign companies will not be allowed to just set up business on paper in the Netherlands because of the favourable tax climate. This means the Netherlands will miss out on approximately one and a half billion euro in tax income and thousands of jobs will be lost, according to the AD of last Friday. Large companies such as Google and IKEA but also rock bands such as U2 and The Rolling Stones have these PO Boxes in the Netherlands. In total there are approximately twenty thousand of these tax profiteers.
Concrete proposals
In June the EU will put forward concrete proposals in order to put an end to these PO Box companies. Last Thursday, Euro-MP for the SP (Socialist Party) Dennis de Jong and many more members of the European Parliament voted for a ban. According to him, tax evasion costs Europe approximately a thousand billion euro each year. Moreover, a big portion of that amount should be paid by the European problem countries. ‘It is costing us money but it will also yield money if we would not have to support these countries anymore,’ according to Dennis de Jong in the AD newspaper. He does fear however, that thousands of accountants and tax specialists working for these PO Box companies, will lose their jobs after the ban has been imposed.
Source: NUzakelijk