The lower house of the parliament adopted the Tax Plan 2016 on 18 November 2015. The same was presented to the lower house of the parliament on 15 September 2015 by the Minister of Finance. The important measures were included on corporate tax and dividend withholding tax. The corporate tax measures also include transfer pricing issues like Country-by-country reporting and transfer pricing documentation as per BEPS action plan 13.

To implement action point 13 of the OECD project Base Erosion and Profit Shifting, new transfer pricing documentation obligations for multinational groups are introduced. Based on these obligations, multinational companies with consolidated group turnover of EUR 750 million must file an annual country-by-country report. In addition, Dutch taxpayers that are part of a multinational group with a consolidated turnover of at least EUR 50 million in the preceding year, should prepare an OECD type “master file” and a “local file” for transfer pricing and branch allocation documentation purposes.

It was also amended common reporting standards and thus financial institutions will now be required to provide to the tax authorities certain data, such as balances on bank accounts held by individuals living abroad, etc. for information exchange purposes.

To implement EU Directive 2014/86 (on hybrid mismatches), the participation exemption rules and the participation credit system are amended. The participation exemption and the credit system will no longer apply for benefits derived from a subsidiary in so far as these benefits are deductible for corporate income tax purposes. If the benefits or payments received are deducted from the acquisition price of the subsidiary, they will be qualified as taxable income. A non-resident entity that holds a substantial shareholding in a Dutch resident company will be subject to corporate income tax if the substantial interest is held with the main purpose to avoid taxation and an artificial structure is put in place.