Despite government pledges to cut red tape, the Netherlands has gone down from 30th to 33th place in a World Bank and PricewaterhouseCoopers report on international tax regulations.

The Netherlands is lower on the Paying Taxes 2010 ranking despite a number of tax reforms, said PWC spokesman Sytso Boonstra.
For example, companies only have to report their value-added tax income four times a year instead of monthly and it has become easier to register new staff with the tax office, he said.
‘Nevertheless, entreprenuers still spend relatively more time on meeting tax office requirements here than in the surrounding countries,’ Boonstra said.
The survey shows a medium-sized Dutch firm spent an average of 164 hours complying with tax laws last year, 16 hours fewer than in 2007, but double the amount of time needed in Norway and Ireland.
Dutch entrepreneurs spend eight days dealing with wages and social premium admin and 7.5 days on value-added tax, the survey showed.