On January 11, 2017 the Dutch Secretary for Finance sent a letter to the Dutch House of Representatives in which he gives an update on the efforts the Dutch tax authorities have made and still will have to make with respect to the exchange of information on tax rulings.

Some of the interesting takeaways from the letter are:

·   The Netherlands did not make the January 1, 2017 deadline as agreed within the OECD regarding the exchange of information on existing rulings;

·   In recent months there has been contact with the OECD secretariat of the Forum on Harmful Tax Practices ("FHTP") to come to a workable arrangement for the exchange of information on rulings by the Netherlands.

·   With the OECD secretariat is has been agreed that the Netherlands will need an additional year and that the information will therefore be exchanged by ultimately December 31, 2017;

·   The number of rulings regarding which the Netherlands expects to exchange information seems to be much higher than the average number of rulings the other countries expect to exchange information on. Where the Netherlands expects to exchange information on several thousands of rulings, a majority of the other OECD countries has indicated that they expect the number of rulings with respect to which they expect to exchange information might not exceed 200;

·   A majority of the rulings granted/concluded by the Dutch tax authorities is not centrally registered. Therefore the Dutch tax authorities have to go through the files manually;

·   Initially there are not the rulings themselves that are forwarded, but only standard forms containing information regarding the ruling granted/concluded. The completion of these standard forms has turned out to be more complicated (questions have arisen regarding the interpretation of certain concepts used by the OECD and/or the EU) and therefore more time-consuming than expected;

·   Taxpayers and advisors are and will be involved in the completion of the standard forms regarding existing and new rulings;

·   The tax authorities developed a guide that is helpful for the completion of the standard form. Upon request this guide is made available to taxpayers and tax advisors;

·   For new rulings with a cross-border effect in the Besluit Fiscaal Bestuursrecht (a decree) it will be stipulated that a completed draft standard will be part of the information that has to be provided when filing a request for a ruling.

Click here to download the letter of the Dutch State Secretary to the Dutch House of Representatives of January 11, 2017 from the website of the Dutch Ministry of Finance.

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