US media company ViacomCBS has avoided at least $4 billion in profit taxes in about a decade and a half through agreements with Dutch tax authorities. This was stated by the Foundation for Research on Multinational Corporations (SOMO) after its own research.
Many ViacomCBS shows, well known from channels like Nickelodeon and MTV, are made in the United States. But broadcasting rights were transferred to countries with favorable tax regimes, such as the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Barbados and Bermuda. As a result, the US government loses a lot of tax revenue.
Between 2002 and 2019, according to Sumo’s calculations, the company passed $32.5 billion of its revenue through Dutch channel companies. The Netherlands will thus play a crucial role in the international tax structure of the company. ViacomCBS itself has not yet commented on the report.
There has been a lot of discussion about tax evasion by large multinational corporations for some time. The European Commission recently announced that it will introduce a bill this year to tackle the abuse of email companies. The Netherlands is famous for its email companies. In 2019, the Netherlands and Luxembourg are still denounced by the European Court of Justice as financial transition states. According to De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB), in 2018, there were 12,000 holding and financing companies of foreign multinationals in the Netherlands, with no non-financial production and employment in the Netherlands. Cabinet is already in the process of taking additional measures to combat tax evasion via email companies.
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