WILLEMSTAD - For the adjustment in the National Ordinance on Profit Tax, as recently adopted by parliament, the government has had "very intensive consultations" with the European Union (EU) and there has been coordination with the secretariat of the Forum for Harmful Taks Practises of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

Minister of Finance Kenneth Gijsbertha explains this further after he received questions from parliament.

"This was a very time-consuming process, as a result of which the bill has only just been offered to parliament," he explains. The bill was submitted in December last year.

The minister says that the new tax package is not about the automatic exchange of data, because legislation was already adopted for this in 2018.

"There are, however, other conditions that the EU sets for not being placed on the EU's blacklist, namely the adaptation of harmful elements in the National Ordinance on the Profit Tax 1940 and other preferential regimes such as the e-zone," said Gijsbertha.

He explained that the National ordinance for economic zones 2000 was found to be "out-of-scope". It has therefore been necessary to make changes as soon as possible in accordance with the standards of the EU Code of Conduct Group (COCG) and the OECD.

An evaluation will take place in 2024. Why in 2024 and not before is because, according to the government, in this year companies made their final income tax return for the years 2020, 2021 and 2022 and the evaluation can take place over these three years. There will be then sufficient reference material.