Klaver offers cabinet three tax measures to fill €18bn gap

Pro leader Jesse Klaver offered the cabinet a three-part tax package in the Tweede Kamer debate on the Belastingplan (the annual tax plan). He called it an "final attempt" to come together and warned that time is short.

Klaver called the cabinet's wealth gains tax in box 3 a "gift of €18bn to the richest Dutch people", money the Treasury will miss. Pro, with negotiating partner Volt, wants the same group to pay that amount.

He proposed three measures. First, a top rate in the wealth tax, so those in the highest bracket pay more. Second, higher tax for entrepreneurs: the cabinet plans to lower the rate in box 2 temporarily, to tempt business owners to take more wealth out of their companies in the coming years. Third, action on the "papieren schenking" (paper gift), a popular and legal way to avoid inheritance tax.

Klaver spoke first, as leader of the largest opposition party, before the leaders of D66, VVD and CDA joined the debate. In his view this is not a routine procedure but a big political debate about whether there is a majority at all. "That has never happened before," he said.

Klaver said it was unthinkable that the cabinet seems to be courting Gidi Markuszower, who split from the PVV, to find a majority in the Tweede Kamer. "We had an agreement in this parliament," he said. "Political appeals that incite violence, that embrace the replacement theory: we are not negotiating with that."