Dutch corporate income tax rates could be slashed at Budget Day

State Secretary Eric Wiebes of Finance is thinking about lowering the corporate income tax rates in the tax plan for next year, he said at a tax advisers conference on Tuesday. The tax advisers are advocating for lower corporate income tax so they can remain competitive internationally, the Telegraaf reports. The State Secretary would not definitely say whether or not the corporate interest tax rates will be lowered, but did say that he is thinking about it. "We have to be able to continue to attract investors in the future and then you automatically end up on the rate", he said, according to the newspaper. Wiebes stressed that 40 percent of the jobs in the Netherlands are attributable to multinationals established here partly for tax reasons. But he added that they also have other reasons for settling in the Netherlands, like "just because we have a pleasant country to live in". The VVD State Secretary will officially announce the corporate income tax rate on Budget Day and would give no hints on what it will be. He did say that it will not drop down to Ireland standards, where companies only pay 12.5 percent. "We should not be the discounter in Europe." The Dutch Association of Tax Advisers thinks that a 25 percent rates knocks the Netherlands out of the market. According to them, stringent international regulations make it increasingly difficult for multinationals to cut on corporate income tax in inventive ways. So the Netherlands with its high rate loses out to countries like Ireland, Great Britain and Luxembourg and their much lower rates.