Corporate and income tax could be cut in two years time, junior finance minister Jan Kees de Jager says in an interview with today’s Financieele Dagblad. ‘From 2009, my ambition is to further reduce the taxes on labour and profits,’ de Jager said. The tax cuts will be paid for by increasing the taxes on pollution.

In the cabinet agreement, a tax on pollution – such as plane tickets, environmentally-unfriendly cars and packaging – is set to raise €1bn by 2008. To pay for tax cuts from 2009, this would have to be increased by ‘a similar amount’, de Jager told the paper. Further details still have to be worked out.
De Jager’s plans would have to be backed by MPs. In addition, he said he would only go ahead with the idea if it did not ‘importantly’ damage spending power.
The previous cabinet cut the corporate tax rate from 29.6% to 25.5%. The Financieele Dagblad suggested a further cut of one percentage point could be in the offing.