(December 10, 2014)

On December 10, 2014 the Dutch Ministry of Finance published a news release on its website titled “Tax treaty negotiations 2015”. In the news release the Ministry states that the Dutch Government is constantly negotiating with other countries regarding (new) tax treaties. The overview that is published by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs on a quarterly basis contains the names of the countries with which the Dutch Government is currently negotiating. Via the news release the Dutch Ministry of Finance informs the public that next to the countries mentioned in the overview published by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in 2015 the Dutch Government intends to start negotiations with Iraq, Mozambique and Senegal. Furthermore, the Dutch Government intends to continue the already initiated negotiations with Belgium, Canada, Germany, France and Thailand. Purpose of all these negotiations will be to either conclude a new tax treaty or to revise an already existing tax treaty.

On August 30, 2013 the Dutch Government announced that it would offer the 23 developing countries with which The Netherlands already had a DTA in place or was negotiating on a DTA to include an anti-abuse clause in those DTAs. According to the news release all 23 developing countries have been approached by now. Furthermore the news release states that with some countries an agreement has been reached. According to the news release the countries with which the Dutch government, after a positive reaction to the offer made by the Dutch Government, is expecting to start negotiations are: Bangladesh, Egypt, Philippines, Georgia, India, Indonesia, Kyrgyzstan, Malawi, Morocco, Moldova, Mongolia, Nigeria, Uganda, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Vietnam and Zimbabwe. The new release furthermore states that in case the existing DTA with one of these countries is outdated the possibility exists that the negotiations may include modernizing the respective DTA.

For further information click here to be forwarded to the news release as issued by the Dutch Ministry of Finance (unfortunately this news release is only available in the Dutch language)

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