[OKFN-NL] [OpenSpending] €278bn through shell companies in Netherlands

Thu Jun 20 22:05:13 UTC 2013

Thanks for sharing these points,

In related news, the deal on tax havens, phantom firms and beneficial
ownership from the G8 summit seems to be at a step in the direction of more
transparency:
http://www.one.org/us/2013/06/18/a-g8-transparency-revolution-yeah-some/

For a more detailed review of the G8 deal see this great cheat
sheet<https://docs.google.com/a/okfn.org/document/d/17DE0VBIKHqvpbNdiA7s0hcMAurBEmMjV-nxmHB75e4c/edit>
also
from Alan Hudson, ONE on among other things taxation and extractive
industries.

Finally, in on company taxation I also want to point you to the journalist
guide on tax avoidance<http://openspending.org/resources/journo/resources/tax-avoidance-evasion.html>
on
OpenSpending.

With this discussion in mind I would suggest that we spend some time at the
*Community Hangout next week on Wednesday 26 June* to follow up on taxation
and company registers.

Would anyone find this interesting and possibly lead such a discussion at
the Community Hangout?

Best,
Anders

On 20 June 2013 15:52, Chris Taggart <countculture at gmail.com> wrote:

> Not sure how many missing. The main problem is keeping it up to date,
> which is tricky, even with crowdsourcing. However, yes, we could do this to
> make a point ;-)
>
>
> On 20 June 2013 19:08, Sam Smith <s at msmith.net> wrote:
>
>> how many are missing?
>>
>> that sounds like an application of crowdsourcing by one of hte
>> anti-tax-avoidance groups with a large mailing list
>>
>>
>>
>> Sam
>>
>> On 20 Jun 2013, at 18:16, Jonathan Gray <jonathan.gray at okfn.org> wrote:
>>
>> > Some further info from Chris...
>> >
>> > On 20 June 2013 17:14, Chris Taggart <chris.taggart at opencorporates.com
>> >wrote:
>> >
>> >> The biggest issue with the Netherlands (and this might be something the
>> >> Dutch press want to pick up on) is the closed nature of the Dutch
>> Chamber
>> >> of Commerce. Not only do they score badly on the Open Company Data
>> Index<http://registries.opencorporates.com/jurisdiction/nl>,
>> >> they also block the IP address of anyone who tries to scrape the data,
>> >> including, I believe possibly OpenKVK, from whom we get the data. This
>> is
>> >> clearly the opposite of being open, and tends to incline one that they
>> >> would rather the information wasn't reused, as it would lend support to
>> >> stories such as this.
>> >>
>> >> We do have the vast majority of NL companies (though some we have
>> >> relatively little data on). Increasingly we are mapping other data to
>> it,
>> >> and so are closing in on the situation.
>> >> Chris
>> >>
>> >> -------------------------------------------------------
>> >> OpenCorporates :: The Open Database of the Corporate World
>> >> http://opencorporates.com
>> >> Blog: http://blog.opencorporates.com
>> >> Twitter: http://twitter.com/OpenCorporates
>> >>
>> >> OpenCorporates is published by Chrinon Ltd, a company dedicated to
>> >> improving and publishing public data under an open licence that allows
>> and
>> >> encourages reuse, including commercially. Registered in England, number
>> >> 07444723.
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> On 20 June 2013 14:13, Jonathan Gray <jonathan.gray at okfn.org> wrote:
>> >>
>> >>> Chris: could you shed any light on this?
>> >>>
>> >>>
>> >>> On 20 June 2013 14:58, Anders Pedersen <anders.pedersen at okfn.org>
>> wrote:
>> >>>
>> >>>> Thanks Jonathan,
>> >>>>
>> >>>> From the article:
>> >>>> "12,000 multinational holding companies, of which 75% are based at
>> >>>> trust offices"
>> >>>>
>> >>>> It would be interesting to map the density of the trust offices
>> across
>> >>>> the country. As we can pull Dutch company data including addresses
>> from
>> >>>> Opencorporates and as the Dutch postal codes are very small
>> entities, it
>> >>>> should be possible to map this.
>> >>>>
>> >>>> When it comes to access to corporate financial data in NL, things
>> are,
>> >>>> as far as I know, much more complicated. Opencorporates is pulling
>> >>>> information from the Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC (US)
>> and this
>> >>>> could possibly be one of the best sources of Dutch corporate
>> financial
>> >>>> information at the moment.
>> >>>>
>> >>>> Anders
>> >>>>
>> >>>> On 20 June 2013 07:46, Jonathan Gray <jonathan.gray at okfn.org> wrote:
>> >>>>
>> >>>>> Apparently "€278bn flow through shell companies based in the
>> >>>>> Netherlands every year". [1]
>> >>>>>
>> >>>>> Wonder if this is something that any OpenSpending folks in NL have
>> >>>>> looked into?
>> >>>>>
>> >>>>> All the best,
>> >>>>>
>> >>>>> Jonathan
>> >>>>>
>> >>>>> [1]
>> >>>>>
>> http://www.dutchnews.nl/news/archives/2013/06/the_netherlands_is_not_a_tax_h.php
>> >>>>>
>> >>>>> --
>> >>>>>
>> >>>>> Jonathan Gray
>> >>>>>
>> >>>>> Director of Policy and Ideas  | *@jwyg <https://twitter.com/jwyg>*
>> >>>>>
>> >>>>> The Open Knowledge Foundation <http://okfn.org/>
>> >>>>> *
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>> >>>>
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>> >>> --
>> >>>
>> >>> Jonathan Gray
>> >>>
>> >>> Director of Policy and Ideas  | *@jwyg <https://twitter.com/jwyg>*
>> >>>
>> >>> The Open Knowledge Foundation <http://okfn.org/>
>> >>> *
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>> >
>> >
>> > --
>> >
>> > Jonathan Gray
>> >
>> > Director of Policy and Ideas  | *@jwyg <https://twitter.com/jwyg>*
>> >
>> > The Open Knowledge Foundation <http://okfn.org/>
>> > *
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>> --
>> @smithsam
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
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>
>
>
> --
> -------------------------------------------------------
> OpenCorporates :: The Open Database of the Corporate World
> http://opencorporates.com
>  OpenlyLocal :: Making Local Government More Transparent
> http://openlylocal.com
> Blog: http://countculture.wordpress.com
> Twitter: http://twitter.com/CountCulture
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