Dutch Tax Authority hands US software company control over VAT system | Hacker News Reader

Dutch Tax Authority hands US software company control over VAT system

techzine.eu

30 pointsbramhaag7 comments

The USA have repeatedly and unambiguously made it crystal clear that they are not a reliable partner, and that they should not be depended upon. They will abuse any leverage afforded to them, when and how it suits them.

Momentum will carry them for quite a while, but as a European, I hope we will move away from USA-dependence.

I could not agree more with this sentiment. The time has finally come to rid our public procurement tenders of these parasitic U.S.-American companies, which have always had as their primary goal the extraction of European tax payer funds at any cost, often stooping to downright bribery and corruption.

We cannot allow our public funds to go to the U.S. anymore. This is now a matter of national security.

The Netherlands just handed its VAT system to an American company.. Not just the software. The servers, the maintenance, all run remotely from the US. €1.5B a week in tax revenue as a managed service from across the Atlantic. Bert Hubert calls it “BTW-as-a-service.”

Europe talks a lot about digital sovereignty while outsourcing the plumbing. I looked at the same dynamic in payments, where the EuroPA alliance is at least building European rails instead of just complaining about it: https://philippdubach.com/posts/europes-24-trillion-payment-...

Most governments can only accept offers that are made to them. If you want to get chosen next time, find out how your government's tender process works, and engage in that process. These are giant US companies whose business differentiator is knowing the government purchase process so they can sell things to the government when others don't.

Public procurement tenders in the EU for city, state and federal contracts often stipulate that the bidding company must have something like three years of consecutive p. a. revenues exceeding anything from €300.000 to €1.000.000 - please tell me how even a freelance developer who bills through their LLC can reasonably participate here on EU rates?

I don't see how this is about people finding out how their government's processes work. Most people in the EU are painfully aware of our horribly broken public procurement schemes.

My tender offer: first you pay me €1.000.000 p.a. for 3 years, then I give you what you asked for

Maybe the EU offers are genuinely not good enough. This relocation of tech to Europe has only just started. Currently the USA is still years ahead in outsourcing software development to India and selling it for USA prices.

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