ING has avoided paying tens of millions of euros in Dutch value added tax by buying in services via a Swiss unit, the Financieele Dagblad reports on Monday.
The paper bases its claims on ‘papers and statements’ from insiders. Among the companies supplying hundreds of millions of euros worth of services via Switzerland are Microsoft, Oracle and staffing agency Randstad, the paper says.
Contracts and bills processed via Switzerland are not subject to the standard Dutch value-added tax (btw) rate of 19%.
Insiders told the paper the practice is known internally as the ‘Swiss procurement hub’ and has been used since 2004.
‘Six years ago a number of big contracts had to be moved over to a Swiss ING operation,’ the source said. ‘This is not ethical behaviour.’
Swiss consent
In a statement, ING told the paper its Global Vendor Management Centre has operated since 2007 with full consent of the Swiss tax authorities. The main reason for setting it up was to pressure costs, and savings on value-added tax do play a role in that, ING was reported as saying.
One supplier told the paper had been invited to a meeting in Zurich and asked to switch a contract to the Swiss concern. ‘We work clearly for ING Nederland,’ he told the paper. ‘Then it is very odd if contracts and bills are processed via Switzerland.’
He refused to sign, the paper says.
ING has had €10bn in Dutch state investment to tide it over the financial crisis. The FD says the government has been putting pressure on it to sell off units which help customers avoid tax.
