Government measures in key jurisdictions 4th edition - Flipbook - Page 140
The Netherlands
On 24 April 2020, the Dutch government announced that taxpayers may form a reserve ("fiscal
coronavirus reserve") up to the amount of the expected loss for 2020 and set this off against any
2019 taxable income. The amount of the fiscal coronavirus reserve may not exceed the total taxable
income for 2019. Taxpayers may take the fiscal coronavirus reserve into account when requesting a
preliminary corporate income tax assessment, including a reduced preliminary corporate tax
assessment. Further details are expected to follow on the annual Budget Day (15 September), during
which the legislative tax proposals for 2021 are presented by the Dutch government. The application
may be submitted here.
Company
law matters
•
Directors who are also major shareholders in their own company are deemed to receive a 'customary
salary' for Dutch wage tax purposes. The customary salary rules (gebruikelijkloonregeling) aim to avoid
artificial structures under which no salary or only a small salary is attributed to directors/major
shareholders. The 'customary salary' depends on the director/major shareholder's specific situation,
but is in principle at least EUR 46,000 (2020) or equal to the most comparable employee of another
company or the highest earning employee of the director/major shareholder's own company. On 24
April 2020, the Dutch government announced that these rules will be changed so that directors/major
shareholders may temporarily reduce the 'customary salary' they are deemed to receive in proportion
to the turnover losses incurred due to the coronavirus. Approximately 135,000 directors/major
shareholders are expected to benefit from the measure.
•
Under the work-related cost scheme, employers may use 1.2% (i.e. the discretionary margin) of their
total wage sum for tax-free allowances and benefits to employees. As from 1 January 2020, the
discretionary margin was increased to 1.7% for the first EUR 400,000 of the total wage sum. On 24
April 2020, the Dutch government announced to further increase the discretionary margin from 1.7%
to 3% for the first EUR 400,000 of the total wage sum.
•
On 26 June 2020, the State Secretary of Finance announced a six-month postponement of the
reporting deadlines under EU Directive 2018/822 on mandatory automatic exchange of information in
the field of taxation in relation to reportable cross-border arrangements ("DAC 6"). The DAC 6
reporting deadline was originally intended to take effect from 1 July 2020. As a result of this
postponement, the 30 day period for new reportable cross border arrangements is deferred from 1
July 2020 to 1 January 2021 (i.e. reportable cross border arrangements between 1 July 2020 and 1
January 2021 need to be reported ultimately 31 January 2021). The deadline for reportable cross
border arrangements of which the first implementation step occurred between 25 June 2018 and 1
July 2020 is deferred from 31 August 2020 to 28 February 2021.
•
Have any measures
been put in place to
accommodate social
distancing (such as
remote general
meetings)?
The Dutch Ministry of Justice and Security published a bill on 8 April 2020 on temporary provisions in
the area of the Ministry of Justice and Security in connection with the coronavirus ( Covid-19)
outbreak (the “Emergency Act”) and an accompanying Explanatory Memorandum. The Emergency
Act provides for, among other things:
–the facilitation of electronic decision-making by temporary derogation from the legal and statutory
provisions concerning holding physical meetings of legal entities,
–extension of the period for preparing annual accounts by the management board instead of by
the general meeting,and
–a temporary limitation on the ‘presumptions of proof’ for directors’ liability in case of bankruptcy if
filing the annual accounts is delayed as a result of Covid-19.
•
The bill has now been adopted by the House of Representatives and must be adopted by both the
House of Representatives and the Senate. More information can be found here.
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