50PLUS unease complicates Dutch tax plan as VVD threatens opposition

Dutch pensioners’ party 50PLUS says it is uneasy about a proposed change to the tax plan, creating fresh uncertainty over whether the package can pass the House of Representatives. The dispute centres on how far to restrict a tax-planning arrangement involving inheritance and gift tax.

Party leader Jan Struijs said 50PLUS was being asked to support a “very far-reaching amendment” put forward by PRO and Volt. 50PLUS and the ChristenUnie appear willing to help the amendment win a majority, but want its proposed approach to the tax arrangement left out. Both parties have submitted a motion calling for that exclusion to be implemented after the tax plan is adopted.

The two parties have also proposed their own amendment, which would limit the tax advantage from the arrangement. Struijs said he did not want to go further than that proposal; the PRO–Volt amendment would do so.

The arrangement has also featured in a separate debate over funding changes to the planned tax on income from assets, known in the Netherlands as box 3. An earlier parliamentary proposal called for the government to examine inheritance and gift taxes as possible sources of funding; it was a request for consideration, not a change to tax law.

PRO and Volt had previously backed the tax plan. The small parties may now hold greater sway because the VVD has threatened to oppose the plan if the PRO–Volt proposal is included in the package.