News from Amsterdam
To the front page 11/1 Jurists want to stay in Oudemanhuispoort 8/2 Mayor’s portrait 8/2 Websites for social cohesion 7/2 Spreading tourism proceeds with difficulty 7/2 GroenLinks on districts: Be a man 6/2 Zuideramstel opens new office on Sabbath 5/2 The truth about integration 4/2 Wilders has little support on Amsterdam 3/2 Elite involved in neighbourhood 2/2 Johnnie Walker avoids taxes in Amsterdam 1/2 Rotterdam to tinker with district councils as well 31/1 Wooden rowing boats to disappear from Amstel 31/1 ZeeburgTV launched 27/1 Privacy activists to mess up loyalty card system 27/1 A few were still coughing, but that was an act 27/1 Chrisis in de Baarsjes 26/1 Youth have positive view of districts 24/1 Action groups call for Carmel and Jaffa boycott 24/1 PvdA members dismiss plan for districts 23/1 KLM takes on crisis with new uniform 23/1 District office not squatted 21/1 Merge districts 20/1 Closing squat bar Vrankrijk not necessary 20/1 Cleaners welcome new Schiphol director 18/1 Palestine at the Jewish Historical Museum 18/1 What is the right size for a district? 17/1 PvdA Oost against fewer districts 16/1 Committee: 7 districts by 2010 15/1 Soldiers may attend Afghanistan debate after all 15/1 Bait bike leads to arrest 14/1 Youth for Christ to republish vacancies 13/1 Paintings of the Zuidas 13/1 New Youth for Christ contoversy 11/1 Social cohesion initiative raises eyebrows 10/1 Fewer districts in 2010 10/1 Zuidas: People feel that we are losers 9/1 Fun on the ice - but not for all 9/1 Supermarket coupon fraud thwarted 9/1 I Amsterdam must remain exclusive 8/1 Use term Apartheid in every discussion 8/1 No city kiosk in Amsterdam yet 7/1 Snow 7/1 Fatima Elatik to run Zeeburg 7/1 Municipal managers to return to shop floor 4/1 Police: take photo of strange people 3/1 Gaza protest criticises politicians 1/1 Thousands to protest against attacks on Gaza 1/1 Mustapha Laboui leaves district council
|
Mailbox companies controversy10 January 2007 - The Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations (SOMO) will meet with the Finance Department later this week to discuss the controversial mailbox companies that operate from trust offices in Amsterdam. Last week, the ING Group decided to sell its trust activities. In this article Partly as a result of lenient tax rules, twenty thousand mailbox companies are active in the Netherlands, according to a report published by SOMO last November. These companies can be used to channel profits out of developing countries, causing these countries to miss out on tax income. They also facilitate money laundering and attract questionable companies. For example, Trafigura, the company that was involved in the Probo Koala toxic waste scandal, is on paper a Dutch company. Finance Minister Gerrit Zalm was not amused with the SOMO report. In the Senate, he said that Dutch tax rules in fact benefit developing countries because of the participation exemption, which reduces the costs of doing business in developing countries. He was further annoyed by the fact that SOMO would have called the Netherlands a tax haven. Researcher Michiel van Dijk is not impressed by Zalm’s criticism. SOMO has never called the Netherlands a tax haven in the general sense of the word, he told News from Amsterdam, but it is definitely a tax haven for multinational corporations. The participation exemption is unrelated to regulations that facilitate mailbox companies, according to Van Dijk. Zalm described SOMO as “a government-subsidized club that mainly says bad things about the Netherlands”. Van Dijk did not understand this as a threat to cut SOMO’s subsidy. “The minister was probably just annoyed because he had to face criticism on the eve of the elections”, Van Dijk said. After financial scandals at the Enron and Parmalat companies, which used mailbox companies in Amsterdam, various banks decided to sell their trust activities in 2004. While banks such as ABN Amro cited as a reason that they wanted to focus on their core activities, SOMO thinks they were afraid their reputation might be damaged. Last week, the ING Group announced its intention to sell ING Trust to the current management. An ING spokesperson also said that the main reason is that the company wants to focus on its core activities. The proceedings will be used to invest in life insurances. However, the scandals also play a role in ING’s decision. After these scandals, the government decided to tighten regulations for trust companies. The ING does not want to bear the additional cost this entails, the spokesperson said. Incidentally, both ABN Amro and ING Group have indicated that they intend to continue doing business with their newly independent trust companies. SOMO report
Want to receive News from Amsterdam? Click here
|
|
|
