Doing Business in the Netherlands 2012 - American Chamber of ...

Doing Business in the Netherlands 2012
from the European Commission and has been effective starting 1
January 2007.
From 2 January 2011, the Innovation Box regime can also be applied
to income from so-called patent-assets (octrooi-activa) in the years
during which the patent application is still pending. Before January
2011, the Innovation Box regime could be applied only if a patent had
been granted to the taxpayer and therefore not on income realized in
the period the patent was requested for but not yet granted to the
taxpayer.
For 2012, the Ministry of Finance announced a research and
development deduction (Research and Development Aftrek) for Dutch
corporate income tax purposes. This deduction is expected to take the
form of a ‘levy rebate’ (i.e., a direct deduction from the calculated
corporate income tax payable) in the amount of 25% of the research
and development expenses, not including wage costs.
18.1.6 Dividend Withholding Tax
The Dutch domestic dividend withholding tax rate is 15%, which may
be reduced by the application of tax treaties. Furthermore, no
dividend withholding tax is levied on dividend distributions to
companies residing in a Member State of the European Union that
have a minimum shareholding of 5% in the nominal contributed share
capital of the Dutch entity, to the extent that the EU shareholder has
one of the legal forms as set forth in the appendix of the EU Parent-
Subsidiary Directive.
In case a foreign company established in an EU Member State is
exempt from corporate income tax (such as a pension fund) and that
company would also be exempt from corporate income tax in case it is
established in the Netherlands, any Dutch dividend withholding tax
that has been withheld upon a dividend distribution to that company
will be refunded. This does not apply if the activities of the foreign
company are similar to a Dutch Investment company or Exempt
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