Netherlands - Multiple company setup / Tax

[Brussels Slumdog]

The Weekly EU Commuter

Thanks, well made points. My main beef is the seeming complication involved, (for example, some countries have a 183 day rule but some don't, Holland has a 30% rule for some expat circumstances but other states do not, in the UK it is easy to run a small Ltd Co as a one man band, in other states it is not so easy) your post goes some way to illustrating that. I would like consistent rules right across the EU, simple and easy to understand for Monday to Friday pan European workers. As an aside, I would like the burden of tax moved greatly away from income and towards consumption, hence the eastern Europeans over here and us Westerners over there would contribute to that country's economy by spending money there, but income would be taxed in our home states. But that isn't going to happen any time soon.

You have raised an interesting distinction where two rules need to be created, one for the weekly commuter and one for an Expat.

A weekly commuter leaves home on Sunday evening/Monday morning and returns home Friday evening which
is what I and thousands of contractors do.
An Expat moves his wife, children, dog and kitchen sink from his home country to his contracting country and tries normally without much success to go native.

A weekly commuter should remain a non resident up to 24 months and pay a yearly local consumption tax based on the number of working days (as per signed timesheet) spent in the contracting country.

An Expat contractor should be taxed based on applicable double taxation rules

[Fred Bloggs]

You have raised an interesting distinction where two rules need to be created, one for the weekly commuter and one for an Expat.

A weekly commuter leaves home on Sunday evening/Monday morning and returns home Friday evening which
is what I and thousands of contractors do.
An Expat moves his wife, children, dog and kitchen sink from his home country to his contracting country and tries normally without much success to go native.

A weekly commuter should remain a non resident up to 24 months and pay a yearly local consumption tax based on the number of working days (as per signed timesheet) spent in the contracting country.

An Expat contractor should be taxed based on applicable double taxation rules

I agree completely, except IMO the consumption tax should be the normal VAT on Hotels, car hire, restaurant meals etc... Why can't the EU manage this?

[Brussels Slumdog]

I agree completely, except IMO the consumption tax should be the normal VAT on Hotels, car hire, restaurant meals etc... Why can't the EU manage this?

You pay the VAT on Hotels, car hire, restaurant meals etc whether you are a tourist or a foreign contractor

One of the objectives of all Governments is to create local employment in order to lower unemployment claims.
One way of achieving this is by having lower Corporation taxes or investment credits than other competing economies. What a country loses in Investment incentives should be offset against employee taxes.
The UK Government uses your taxes to create jobs so I guess its only fair that foreign workers pay taxes on their wages. Example Irish IT Commuter works in UK in a newly created company. Irish government receives no tax revenue but stops paying benefits. UK government continues to pay benefits to the worker that did not get the job. The foreign EU IT Commuter should pay a tax based the local Unemployment rate.
The UK Government also uses your taxes to fund Education, Defence and other benefits that are not available to the IT commuter. Being taxed at the full rate is unfair.
The Expat with his family benefits from everything that the system has to offer so should pay the full tax rates..

[Fred Bloggs]

So, it seems to me that the Mon > Fri euro-commuter gets the worst of all worlds. This is my point, I have no desire to live in France, Italy, Holland, Belgium etc... But I have refused decent contracts there because I don't want the hassle of a messy/punitive cross border taxation system. This is bad for all businesses, bad for me, bad for the economy in all EU states.