The Dutch government is thinking of increasing the VAT from its current 19% to 20% at the end of this year (source). That may seem like a lot, but for instance in Denmark I believe it stands at 25% and Denmark is a pretty nice country.
I’m curious to the rationale of such an increase of 1%. Why increase it at all? In the current political climate it will only increase perception that Jan Modaal1 is being screwed over by government. And why then not increase it directly to 25% or 50%, if it’s such a good thing?
In other news a radio commercial claiming that ‘taxation is theft’ (source) was banned this week.
- Dutch for the Average Joe. [↩]