‘More than half of the 100 largest companies in the world avoid tax through the Netherlands’
An inventory by Follow the Money showed that 55 of the largest companies in the world are located in the Netherlands for tax reasons.
To determine the size of the Netherlands as a tax haven, the research platform has determined the hundred largest companies in the world based on measured turnover from the ‘Global 500’ of the Fortune magazine.
This showed that 55 of the hundred largest companies in the world arrange their tax payments to a lesser extent through our country. In total, these 55 companies in their Dutch companies have assets on the balance sheet of 774 billion euros. In the top 3 by revenue are Walmart (rank 1 in the Fortune 500), China National Petroleum (rank 4) and the Sinopec Group (rank 5). The other 45, who therefore do not opt for the Netherlands, are Chinese state-owned companies of companies that only work locally, a Dutch establishment does not result in any benefits.
The research also shows that money is often channeled through letterbox companies: only money flows and that have no further activities. There is no one on the payroll, from just one or a handful of employees.
What is also striking is that many of the 55 multinationals use the legal form of cooperative. The ‘co-op’, recognizable by the letters UA (Excluded from Liability) after the name, is an association of entrepreneurs. The underlying reasons for the choice of this legal form is that a cooperative can pay dividends to foreign investors, no withholding tax is paid.
But these and other routes via the Netherlands are less lucrative due to changing changes in the Netherlands, Ireland and the US, among others. this is how Follow the Money writes. After Unilever and Shell, Walmart is also disappearing from the Netherlands. The American supermarket chain, the largest company in the world, is closing the letterbox BV. Google has also picked up letterbox bv.