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Uber used 50 Dutch shell companies to dodge taxes

businessinsider.com

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Re: Uber used 50 Dutch shell companies to dodge taxes

#21

Post by beckman466 »

dep_b wrote: post #12
dstick wrote: post #4

I'm getting more and more frustrated by my own country's willingness to facilitate this. It just doesn't make any sense. From what I can tell it's all based on old-fashioned debunked economic theories in the same vain as "trickle-down-economy". There's a growing resistance to the Netherlands as a "Doorsluisland", and our current administration's political turmoil will hopefully provide the momentum for actual change…

Why doesn't it make a lot of sense? It requires for companies to have some representation here, probably the have a board of directors and a board of directors is where a retired politician usually goes to after their political career. You wouldn't want to scare the people away that will give you a really well paid job for hardly any work at all, would you? We're still looking at the same people forming a new governm…

> Why doesn't it make a lot of sense? It requires for companies to have some representation here, probably the have a board of directors and a board of directors is where a retired politician usually goes to after their political career. You wouldn't want to scare the people away that will give you a really well paid job for hardly any work at all, would you?

For all the Dutchies here who want to learn exactly how this 'politician to corporate advisor pipeline' works, the VPRO docu 'Bankgeheimen van Joris Luyendijk' is great: https://www.vpro.nl/programmas/tegenlicht/kijk/afleveringen/...

Re: Uber used 50 Dutch shell companies to dodge taxes

#22

Post by foepys »

jeltz wrote: post #14
varispeed wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some tax havens banned IP holding companies. Why is this not written in international law and closed once and for all?

Or at least just eu regulations.

Because the vote needs to unanimous and some countries don't want to give up their revenue stream.

Re: Uber used 50 Dutch shell companies to dodge taxes

#23

Post by williamdclt »

dep_b wrote: post #12
dstick wrote: post #4

I'm getting more and more frustrated by my own country's willingness to facilitate this. It just doesn't make any sense. From what I can tell it's all based on old-fashioned debunked economic theories in the same vain as "trickle-down-economy". There's a growing resistance to the Netherlands as a "Doorsluisland", and our current administration's political turmoil will hopefully provide the momentum for actual change…

Why doesn't it make a lot of sense? It requires for companies to have some representation here, probably the have a board of directors and a board of directors is where a retired politician usually goes to after their political career. You wouldn't want to scare the people away that will give you a really well paid job for hardly any work at all, would you? We're still looking at the same people forming a new governm…

Anybody wrote a book on trickle-up economy yet?

Re: Uber used 50 Dutch shell companies to dodge taxes

#24

Post by capableweb »

varispeed wrote: post #6
vmception wrote: post #3

Any details on why 50 instead of 1? Even if it was to segregate liability for individual pieces of IP, it still seems excessive Many jurisdictions offer a single entity with segregated limited liability. Specifically “Segregated Portfolio Companies” or Series LLCs offering the same concept in other jurisdictions. Would seem out of character for the Netherlands not to have this in their catalogue of entities, since th…

Some tax havens banned IP holding companies. Why is this not written in international law and closed once and for all?

> Why is this not written in international law and closed once and for all?

Because there is no single document for "international law" that you can just change. International law is basically word-of-mouth agreements and norms bunch of countries have, of what they agree to follow, without anyone actually being responsible for creating, maintaining and enforcing them.

Basically, international law is as far away from "law" as you can get in the traditional sense, and a bit of a gentlemen agreement today.

Re: Uber used 50 Dutch shell companies to dodge taxes

#25

Post by DoingIsLearning »

blue1 wrote: post #13

Shell (the oil company) is actually named Royal Dutch Shell. For a moment I was confused by the title. According to wikipedia it is really named after sea shells.

It's not just Shell, it's an honorary title for a lot of old 'notable' companies:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koninklijk

Re: Uber used 50 Dutch shell companies to dodge taxes

#26

Post by technicolorwhat »

dstick wrote: post #4

I'm getting more and more frustrated by my own country's willingness to facilitate this. It just doesn't make any sense. From what I can tell it's all based on old-fashioned debunked economic theories in the same vain as "trickle-down-economy". There's a growing resistance to the Netherlands as a "Doorsluisland", and our current administration's political turmoil will hopefully provide the momentum for actual change…

Im dutch too and im super frustrated about this. I don't care about paying taxes (I've done so for the last 20+ years) even if they go as high as 52%.

But it really irritates me that:

- other companies with this tax deals pay almost nothing

- its unfair and destroys local competition i.e a Starbucks vs mom's coffee bar.

Re: Uber used 50 Dutch shell companies to dodge taxes

#27

Post by tinco »

williamdclt wrote: post #23
dep_b wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why doesn't it make a lot of sense? It requires for companies to have some representation here, probably the have a board of directors and a board of directors is where a retired politician usually goes to after their political career. You wouldn't want to scare the people away that will give you a really well paid job for hardly any work at all, would you? We're still looking at the same people forming a new governm…

Anybody wrote a book on trickle-up economy yet?

Yes, it's called "Capital in the Twenty-First Century" by Thomas Piketty.

Re: Uber used 50 Dutch shell companies to dodge taxes

#29

Post by solarkraft »

madsbuch wrote: post #15
artificial wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s easy to hate the player instead of the game.

The death of morale... It's OK to commit fraud, kill, and rape as long as you can do it within a loophole in the law. Of cause it is a societal destructive way to see the world as a game.

Are billions-valued companies really expected by anyone to be beholden to any morals? If so, why?

Re: Uber used 50 Dutch shell companies to dodge taxes

#30

Post by jiriknesl »

madsbuch wrote: post #15
artificial wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s easy to hate the player instead of the game.

The death of morale... It's OK to commit fraud, kill, and rape as long as you can do it within a loophole in the law. Of cause it is a societal destructive way to see the world as a game.

Paying lower taxes is nothing like kill or rape. There are lots of internet-only companies for which the government did absolutely nothing.
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