Now you go to the crux of it, and how devilish this all is for the Dutch citizens. :-)
You see, to note how intellectually dishonest the authorities that implement this system are,
your argument, that the taxes rates in the Netherlands are not that low ... Was what the
Dutch Economy minister used, when the Obama administration labeled the Netherlands
a tax haven back in 2009 already.
For the citizen, it is indeed, a country with one of the biggest individual
Total Tax loads in the world. You get a flurry of them and its not really progressive.
You are basically paying into one of three tax brackets and the top rate
of 49.5 percent comes very quickly for anything above to €68,507 ( aprox 80,000 USD )
The current world top countries by income tax brackets are:
Ivory Coast 60%
Finland 56.95%
Japan 55.97%
Denmark 55.9%
Austria 55%
Sweden 52.9%
Aruba 52%
Belgium 50%
Israel 50%
Slovenia 50%
Netherlands 49.5%
As I do not believe anybody in the Ivory Coast is paying those tax brackets...and as Aruba is part of
the Kingdom of the Netherlands :-) you are definitely in the top ten but that
is only half of the story. After you go through all of these:
Income tax (inkomstenbelasting)
Payroll tax (loonheffing)
VAT sales tax (BTW / omzetbelasting)
Import tax (douane)
Motor vehicle tax (motorrijtuigbelasting)
Inheritance tax (erfbelasting)
Gift tax (schenkbelasting)
Transfer tax (overdrachtsbelasting)
Most towns even have a Dog tax! ( but funnily enough...not a Cat tax...)
https://www.denhaag.nl/en/taxes/dog-tax.htm
"... It makes no difference if the dog is big or small..." , what means
they actually thought about it.
Believe it or not, there is even an Exit Tax if you decide to
say its too much, and you want to leave the country with your assets.
You then get all of the local ones:
property tax
waste collection charges
street cleaning/maintenance
sewerage tax
movable property tax (e.g., houseboats, portable kiosks)
The system is organized for the corporations, and special tax structures organized by the big four, and other
organizations close to to the Dutch political system.
"...There is no revolving door policy for departing Dutch civil servants. Employees
are free to take up any new position once they've served their notice period..."
Old sample example:
https://corporateeurope.org/en/revolvingdoorwatch/cases/niko...
Its particularly for Foundations and the rich who can afford it, like for example
the Ikea foundation based in the Netherlands:
"IKEA’s Flat-Pack Tax Scheme: a Corporate Structure Designed to Facilitate Profit-shifting and Tax Avoidance"
https://medium.com/@jurgeng/ikeas-tax-scheme-a-corporate-str...