Economische hervorming
Nieuws Economische hervorming
Huge Cost of Tax Evasion Revealed as Campaign to Tackle Tax Havens Launches
25-11-2011
New research published by the Tax Justice Network shows that tax evasion costs 145 countries, representing over 98% of world GDP, more than US$3.1 trillion annually.
Dutch Bilateral Investment Treaties: A gateway to ‘treaty shopping’ by multinational corporations for investment protection
24-10-2011
Multinational corporations (MNCs) investing abroad have been using Dutch bilateral investment treaties (BITs) to sue host country governments for over 100 billion dollars for alleged damages to the profitability of their investments. This is one of the outcomes, described in the new SOMO report “Dutch Bilateral Investment Treaties”, that is launched today, which focuses on the unknown and opaque field of Dutch BITs and their legal impacts.
The Netherlands is a major tax haven
17-10-2011
The Netherlands is world leader in providing tax breaks to international corporations. Our country is one of the two most important tax havens in the world for multinationals. Financial geographer Rodrigo Fernandez of SOMO has been interviewed at EenVandaag, a Dutch TV current affairs show.
“Liberalisation limits regulation that stabilises financial markets”
19-09-2011
In the week that the WTO Public Forum discusses “Seeking answers to global trade challenges” and the G20 Finance and Development ministers meet in Washington, and also three years after the financial crisis erupted in full, re-regulating the financial sector is still on the agenda in many countries, regions and financial forums. However, free trade negotiations that liberalise financial services have continued to propagate deregulatory rules as it is business as usual. The light-touch regulation of the last decades has shifted within Europe to a more restricting regulation model – but this has not yet found solid ground in the EU position in on-going trade negotiations.
Dismantle Dutch fiscal shelters
22-08-2011
In a press release from 9 August, the Dutch Central Bank (De Nederlandsche Bank, DNB) announced with pride that the Netherlands topped the IMF’s world ranking for foreign direct investment. The total of incoming direct investment was as much as 3,000 billion dollars, while outgoing direct investment amounted to 3,700 billion dollars in 2009, the equivalent of 377% and 465% of the GNP, respectively. The United States, a country with a national income of more than 14,000 billion dollars, was second on the list with incoming and outgoing direct investment amounting to 2,300 and 3,500 billion dollars, respectively, 16% and 25% of the GNP in 2009. Thus, the ratio of foreign direct investment to total GNP in the Netherlands is 20 times larger than in the US.
