Changes in Dutch Ruling Policy

On March 30, 2001, in response to pressure from other EU member states, the Dutch Ministry of Finance released eight decisions establishing the new Dutch ruling policy. These policy decisions are primarily intended to: (1) ensure that Dutch transfer pricing rulings comply with the OECD transfer pricing guidelines, (2) prevent companies which have little or no substance in the Netherlands and/or incur little or no risk from obtaining financing and royalty rulings, and (3) prevent the issue of rulings which might violate the principle of good faith governing relationships between treaty partners. In most cases, the policy decisions will not affect rulings to be issued to Dutch holding companies.

The new rulings will take effect as of the 1 April 2001and ruling requests submitted before that date will be dealt with on the basis of the old ruling policy.

The most important aspects of the policy decisions are summarised in the attached document, in order to read this please click on the icon below.

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