Lower House passes 2020 Tax Plan
The Lower House of the Dutch Parliament has passed the bills that together make up the Tax Plan for 2020, as well as the proposed legislation concerning the implementation of ATAD2, the EU’s Anti Tax Avoidance Directive 2, and DAC6, the EU’s Directive on Administrative Cooperation 6 (on the topic of cross-border tax arrangements).
The Lower House has amended the proposed legislation in a number of respects. One of the changes made concerns the replacement of the profit ceiling for non-transport operations (as part of the tonnage tax regime) by a gross sales ceiling and the expansion of the reduction of the levy in the context of the existing levy on lessors to more regions than just those that are affected by scarcity. The Lower House has moreover successfully insisted that the Royal Decree providing for implementation of the Netherlands Act on the Abolition of Tax Deductions for Educational Expenses should first be submitted for the scrutiny of both Houses of Parliament.
The Lower House when debating the Tax Plan for 2020 also carried a number of motions including:
- a motion requesting that the SDE+ scheme be opened up for participation by the glasshouse horticulture sector, thus enabling the sustainability of glasshouses being improved, solar panels being acquired and investments being made in geothermal plant;
- a motion requesting that an investigation be carried out into the impact of disruptions of the overall equilibrium in the income tax sphere;
- a motion requesting that an investigation be carried out into the updating of the travel allowance regime;
- a motion requesting that an independent assessment be made of the budgetary consequences, in the private motor vehicle and motorcycle tax sphere, of changing over from NEDC1 to NEDC2 and from NEDC2 to WLTP;
- a motion requesting that a probe be carried out, as part of the development of the “building blocks for a sound new tax system”, into the options for imposing higher taxes on sets of assets in excess of one million euros each;
- a motion aimed at instructing the Netherland Court of Audit to explore what “Box 3” rate of return would have been feasible without excessive risk during the period from 2013 to 2016 inclusive.
Dutch version: Tweede Kamer heeft Belastingplan 2020 aangenomen