DutchNews.nl - Princess moves tax trusts out of official reach

Two trusts used by princess Christina to avoid paying tax are no longer run through her sister queen Beatrix's official offices, prime minister Jan Peter Balkenende told MPs on Thursday.

This means the government has no control over the trusts, the prime minister is quoted as saying in the Volkskrant. MPs have accused the princess of setting a bad example.

The princess, who lives in London, has put money inherited from her parents in two trusts, the Daffodil and Crocus trusts, which are based in the British tax haven of Guernsey.

Ministers have also rejected calls to cut the royal budget out of solidarity with the rest of the population which is facing a decline in spending power next year, the paper says.

In a readers poll in the populist newspaper Telegraaf, 93% said the royal household should be given less money because of the crisis. And 75% said the budget cut should be 20%, the same amount that the government hopes to trim off its spending in 2011.

Outlandish! Cut the free money in half and tax it?! The government is going after those "hiding money" in Swiss banks, so why not the "royals"? Fine example you are teaching the young and old. Let them eat cake!

By Paul Martin | September 18, 2009 4:05 PM

The news story confirms the public’s worst fears, that there are three tier tax systems for the citizens (some more equal than others, of course in true sense of the word), in this civilized european country. Royal tax (applicable to ceremonial, hereditary and privileged members of royal family who are above the citizen’s laws), Public office tax (applicable to government officials who generate laws to feather their own nests) and Public citizen tax (applicable to the majority of law abiding public citizens, who finance and support the livelihood of the first two groups). The constitution, tax office regulations and citizens common criminal laws apply to all citizens of this civilized european country, regardless of their social position, wealth status, gender, religion, race otherwise the elected state is creating a state, within a state, within a state, and this questionable (selectively, preferential), hierarchical system of working practices inconclusively enforced by the elected state and the tax office is out of order.

By Small Brother | October 4, 2009 12:53 PM