The Netherlands have a very competitive business climate, maintaining attractive regime for financial, holding and other business structures.

Some of the most evident benefits of doing business in the Netherlands are listed below:

• no withholding tax on outgoing interest;

• a wide tax treaty network;

• capital gains and/or dividends received by a Dutch holding company can be exempt from the Dutch corporate tax;

• 30% ruling, allowing a tax-free payment of 30% of salary to employees, provided that specific requirements are met;

• the applicability of the Parent-Subsidiary Directive which reduces the foreign withholding tax on incoming dividends in many cases to 0%;

• participation exemption, which provides that all benefits related to a qualifying shareholding, including cash dividends, dividends-in-kind, bonus shares, hidden profit distributions and capital gains are exempt from the Dutch corporate income tax;

• a ruling practice which allows to determine the taxation in advance;

• corporate tax return can be filed in a foreign currency (= functional currency);

• the facility to carry forward losses for nine years and backwards for one year;

• availability of a fiscal unity regime;

• Schiphol airport and Rotterdam harbor are two main gateways to Europe, and the Netherlands in general have superior logistics, technology infrastructure and access to financial markets;

• flexible corporate law, very suitable for the set up of joint ventures;

• high level of investment protection by means of tax treaty network and a highly developed legal system;

• in surveys the business environment is generally top rated.