VVD will vote against tax plan if amendment passes

The VVD will vote against the tax plan (belastingplan) if an amendment by PRO and Volt is adopted, VVD parliamentary leader Ruben Brekelmans said in a debate in the Tweede Kamer. The amendment would shift €1bn in taxes from labour to capital (vermogen).

Coalition partners D66 and CDA said on Wednesday evening that they support the amendment. The proposal comes from PRO and Volt.

Brekelmans said the VVD cannot be expected to agree to the tax plan when it has made clear where its limits lie and an amendment it cannot accept is then drawn up around it. Whatever happens to the plan, he said, "it cannot go on like this" and a fundamental conversation is needed.

Mirjam Bikker of the ChristenUnie (Christian Union) criticised the VVD's threat. "You're blowing the amendment up into something mythical," she told Brekelmans, asking whether a rejected tax plan would not also be disastrous. Brekelmans replied that he is not blowing anything up: experts say investors are leaving the Netherlands, which he called bad for the economy.

If the plan passes the Tweede Kamer, it must still go through the Eerste Kamer, Bikker noted. Brekelmans said there would still be time to look for a majority there.