Economic affairs minister: raising corporate taxes is a threat to jobs

Photo: government.nl
Photo: Government.nl

Economic affairs minister Henk Kamp said that finance minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem’s election call for higher corporation tax  is a threat to jobs growth, the Financieele Dagblad reported on Friday.

Kamp is a member of the Liberal VVD party, while Dijsselbloem is a Labour PvdA party candidate. The general election is scheduled for March.

Kamp, speaking on a trade mission to the US, said low corporate tax was essential to attract foreign investment. Non-Dutch companies employ some 900,000 people in the Netherlands where corporation tax is now 25%.

There is, Kamp said, a global trend to lower the tax. It is set at 12% in Ireland, 9% in Hungary and there are movements to reduce the tax in Belgium, Denmark and the UK.

‘I do not know if there is a race to the bottom… I do think we should make agreements in Europe and within the OECD,’ Kamp said. ‘I think we have to be very careful about going against the trend and threatening jobs in the Netherlands.’

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