The tax officer went to great lengths to please Uber. It could even be a crime, both of them Faithfulness if Financial Times. Both newspapers have access to a mountain of leaked documents from the company through the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and The Guardian.

Convey confidential information

For example, tax authorities take a long time to submit company information that other Member States in the Netherlands require in order to take strong action in their own country against billion-dollar companies. A tax official also passed on confidential information to Uber from these conversations the tax authorities had with other Member States.

And the help for the tech giants doesn’t stop there. For example, France lobbied for a lighter tax regime for companies. With this, the tax authorities have ‘illegally undermined cooperation with other tax authorities’, according to tax law professor Jan van der Streek. in the newspaper. “Problem image.”

Other country problems

The head of tax affairs at Uber’s European headquarters is pleased with the assistance. If Sweden and the UK wanted data on Uber drivers from Dutch tax authorities, those requests would come at the bottom of the pile, tax specialists emailed in July 2015.

Officials from the Ministry of Economy also helped. The director of the Dutch Foreign Investment Agency was also involved in delaying the provision of data requested by other countries, an interview report showed.

‘Important battle’

And if the French tax authorities want companies to pay turnover and profit taxes in the country because of the branch office, this will be stopped with the help of the Dutch tax authorities. “This is an important battle that the Netherlands must fight for us,” the Uber employee emailed. If this doesn’t work, other countries may follow France’s lead.