Dutch State Secretary Offers No Preference for VAT Solution

• The Dutch State Secretary of Finance has no preference for any of the alternatives he proposes to replace the increase in VAT on culture, media, and sports.
• He leaves the choice to the House of Representatives.
• The coalition and cabinet’s plan to subject culture, media, and sports to the high VAT rate from next year was met with disapproval from almost the entire opposition.
• The cabinet promised to look for alternatives this spring in exchange for support.
• The menu of options sent to the House of Representatives by the State Secretary is not very varied.
• The task was to raise the 1.2 billion euros that reversing the VAT plan would cost through VAT.
• This can only be done by removing other products or services from the low rate or by slightly increasing one of the two VAT rates.
• The House of Representatives overwhelmingly opposed a slight increase in the high VAT rate.
• A rise from 21 to 21.4 percent would be sufficient to close the budget gap.
• After it was leaked that this was one of the options, the coalition parties jointly submitted a motion to block it, although it was already clear that this option would not receive enough support.

Source: taxlive.nl

Note that this post was (partially) written with the help of AI. It is always useful to review the original source material, and where needed to obtain (local) advice from a specialist.

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