'Amending tax system would provide quarter million extra jobs'
In 2017, at the start of the Rutte III cabinet, tax scholars Leo Stevens and Koen Caminada presented a blueprint for a new tax system. Today, four years on, they observe that the cabinet has put little effort into innovations in the area of tax.
Nevertheless, the tax specialists remain constructive and optimistic and already have an up-to-date version ready for the new cabinet. 'Our aim was and continues to be the achievement of a simpler and more neutral system in which priority is given to lower rates on employment income’, they write in their analysis (in Dutch) Update Blauwdruk voor belastinghervorming 2021 (updated blueprint tax reform 2021).
Just like four years ago, they argue this year for a cautious and gradual shift in the tax burden from income to consumption. Currently as a result of the disorganised tax design of the tax system the Netherlands is missing out on much economic prosperity, the scholars write. ‘It is not clear how much exactly, but it is estimated that amending the tax system would create a quarter of a million extra jobs.’
Read more on the website of knowledge platform TaxLive (in Dutch).