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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

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‘Johnnie Walker avoids taxes in Amsterdam’

2 February 2009 – Over the coming days, the Guardian will be publishing an investigation into corporate tax avoidance schemes, which may cost British tax payers as much as £12 billion per year. Some of them use subsidiaries in Amsterdam, where their profits are ‘virtually tax-free’.

One of the companies investigated by the Guardian is Diageo, owner of brands like Johnnie Walker, Smirnoff, Baileys and Guinness. According to the Guardian, Diageo has cut its tax bill by £100m by moving its profits to a subsidiary located near the Amsterdam Sloterdijk Station – at least on paper.

This tax gap would equal the income taxes paid by 20,000 ordinary British households. With the help of Deloitte, Diageo struck a deal with the British tax authority, that “was considered so generous to the company that sources close to Deloitte say the firm cracked open champagne to celebrate”.

The Guardian has announced that it will reveal information on another internationally renowned corporation that located in Amsterdam to evade taxes. The investigated schemes would be legal.

Brendan Barber, general secretary of the TUC, told the Guardian: “Tax avoidance is hollowing out the tax system. With the rest of us having to fill the tax gap left by Britain’s most wealthy, there is a real threat to the future of public services – especially as the recession takes its toll on normal tax flows”.

In the past, the Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations (SOMO) has called Amsterdam a ‘tax haven for multinational corporations’. Partly because of lenient tax rules, some twenty thousand mailbox companies would be active in the Netherlands, most of them operating from trust offices in Amsterdam.

Photo: Piaser

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