Greece’s economic recovery is being undermined by large-scale corporate tax avoidance, whereby companies use loopholes in places like the Netherlands and Luxembourg to pay little or no income tax, according to a new report from Dutch research group, SOMO.
Greece has been gripped by harsh austerity measures imposed by the European Commission, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) for the past five years. Meanwhile, a high proportion of capital is shifted between Greece and the Netherlands, where it is routed through so-called mailbox companies – recently founded firms, based in Holland for purely fiscal reasons.
Companies with a subsidiary in the Netherlands enjoy confidentiality agreements with Dutch tax authorities, and typically pay between 0 and 5% tax on the money they shift to and from that jurisdiction.
SOMO flagged up the unique network of bilateral treaties for the avoidance of double taxation and the special fiscal regimes for group financing operations. It estimates the number of mailbox companies at almost 20,000, which has been increasing rapidly in recent years.
Γιώργος Σκλαβούνος
Εστάλη στην ΟΔΥΣΣΕΙΑ, 3.4.2015