Tax Haven Netherlands takes over EU presidency. As if Juncker weren’t enough

12,000 mailbox companies, and counting

From Social Europe:

“As of this January 1, the Netherlands holds the Presidency of the European Union. This is a good occasion to put the spotlight on a well-kept Dutch secret: The Netherlands is one of the largest tax havens in Europe, indeed the world.

While minister of finance Jeroen Dijsselbloem – better known as head of the Euro Group – routinely denounces Greece’s “unwillingness” to reform its tax system, the Canadian mining company Gold Eldorado avoids paying taxes in Greece via his own country. While the Netherlands lambasted Cypriot banks in 2013 for laundering (Russian) money, oligarchs were invited in 2013 and 2014 to the Dutch embassy in Ukraine for a seminar by private Dutch law firms on how to avoid taxes via the Netherlands. Recently the European Commission decided that special Dutch tax breaks for Starbucks are illegal under European state aid rules.”

We might add this. Or this. There’s a whole menu of examples, in fact.  Read more in the original article.

Still, at least Europe isn’t a monolith, and there’s an interesting separation of roles and powers and responsibilities, so the tax havens can’t take over the whole show.

Oh, wait, hang on a second.

See more at SOMO.

Four trillion. Click on that SOMO link for the full infographic, and more.

 Story hat tip: Wiert Wiertsema