The Dutch tax office paid out more than €400m to British private equity companies last year, according to calculations in Thursday’s Volkskrant.

Companies such as Hema and cable group Ziggo, which are in the hands of foreign investment houses, make a loss on paper because of the huge loans they took out when being taken over and that makes them eligible for tax rebates. The Volkskrant bases its calculations on the companies’ annual reports.
Ziggo, which made a loss of €264m last year got a €109m tax rebate. Hema , which lost €19m got €5m back and waste processor Van Gansewinkel (loss €122m) had a €28m rebate. Former Philips subsidiary NXP Semiconductors got €274m back from the tax office.
Economics professor Leo Stevens told the paper the tax system needed to be reformed so that it was less profitable for major companies to borrow as much money as possible.
A tax office spokesman said the department was aware of the situation but there were no plans to take action.