[OpenSpending] €278bn through shell companies in Netherlands

Fri Jun 21 09:36:55 UTC 2013

Hi all,

To add some other facts and sources to the discussion:

The list of all trust companies registred in the Netherlands, you can find at the website of the dutch central bank:

http://www.dnb.nl/toezichtprofessioneel/de-consument-en-toezicht/registers/WTTTK/detail.jsp?id=2cae544d00a121123d83daa29c42bcbf

You will find there the adress of the trust.

Through the KVK, the dutch register of companies (chamber of commerce) you'll find the companies that are based at that adress. (no costs) All other companydata you'll also find at www.kvk.nl<http://www.kvk.nl>, incuding yearaccounts, but you'll have to pay for it.

there is also an open version of the kvk.

http://openkvk.nl/

regards,

Gert-Jan Dennekamp

reporter NOS Dutch Radio and TV

www.nos.nl<http://www.nos.nl>

________________________________
Van: openspending-bounces at lists.okfn.org [openspending-bounces at lists.okfn.org] namens Ton Zijlstra [ton.zijlstra at gmail.com]
Verzonden: vrijdag 21 juni 2013 10:54
To: OpenSpending Discussion List
Onderwerp: Re: [OpenSpending] €278bn through shell companies in Netherlands

Hi all,

You could start with requesting the list of identified companies the newspaper Volkskrant gathered and researched early this year: http://www.volkskrant.nl/vk/nl/2664/Nieuws/article/detail/3381348/2013/01/23/Buitenlandse-bedrijven-sluisden-in-2011-zeker-57-miljard-door-Nederland.dhtml

You could also go through the report the news clipping Jonathan linked to is based on. Find the PDF at bottom of this page: http://www.hollandfinancialcenter.com/news.php?id=2628&language=NL
A broader range of documents, including annexes, is available from the organisation that did the research SEO : http://www.seo.nl/pagina/article/uit-de-schaduw-van-het-bankwezen/ See PDFs at bottom of page.

It seems that the research is based on 2010 numbers. The newspaper research mentioned above is based on 2011 numbers.

It seems the 278 billion mentioned in the news article is not a good indicator, as the report itself talks about 153 billion Euro incoming, and 125 billion outgoing (153+125=278). So while 28 billion remains in the Netherlands, 125 billion is apparently simply pushed through the Netherlands.  65% divident, 25% interest, 10% royalties make up that amount.

Contribution to Dutch economy is 3 billion in terms of tax, salaries and services paid. Which I think seems a good indicator that not a lot of tax is paid on this money (3 billion on 125 billion)

best,

Ton

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On Thu, Jun 20, 2013 at 2:58 PM, Anders Pedersen <anders.pedersen at okfn.org<mailto: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<mailto: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

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