Around half
of the biggest multinationals in Spain, Italy and Portugal use the Netherlands
to reduce their tax bill in their home country, the Volkskrant reported at the
weekend.
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| Offshore Secrets |
The paper
looked 83 southern European companies which are included in the Forbes 2000
list of the world's biggest multinationals to try to find out how much national
governments are losing in tax income.
Of the 83
companies, the paper says 46 definitely or almost certainly use shell companies
to avoid taxes. In seven cases, the Portuguese, Italian or Spanish state is a
shareholder, the paper said.
Eighteen of
the 34 big Italian firms, 18 of the 26 biggest Spanish multinationals and eight
of the nine Portuguese firms have Dutch letterbox firms. Just two of the 14 big
Greek companies are using Dutch letterbox firms, one of which was Coca Cola's
Greek bottling plant.
Real jobs
Economist
Rick van der Ploeg told the paper agreements need to be made at a European
level to stop a 'race to the bottom'. Tax deals should only be possible to
attract real companies with real factories, the paper quoted him as saying.
Companies
using the Netherlands to reduce their domestic tax bill include Prada,
Telefonica, car maker Fiat and Spanish fashion giant Inditex.
Most of the
Dutch holding companies have no staff and 'shunt hundreds of millions of euros
in dividends and interest through the Netherlands,' the Volkskrant said.
Earlier
stories
- Research into letterbox companies is biased, say critics
- Multinationals and French state companies use Dutch tax deals
- Tax deals for letter box firms under fire, MPs demand change
- Starbucks under fire in Britain over Dutch tax deal
- EU wants an end to letterbox companies
- Letterbox companies largely exempt from tougher rules
- The Netherlands is a popular tax haven for FTSE 100 firms
- Holland no longer a US tax haven
- More tax levied over tax haven income
Related Articles:
OECD demands tax clampdown on multinationals
Multinationals, and French state companies, use Dutch tax deals
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