On May 19, 2016 the Dutch Government opened a public consultation regarding an intended amendment of the conditions to be met for the innovation box to apply. The intended amendments are supposed to enter into force as per January 1, 2017.

According to a statement issued by the Dutch Ministry of Finance, the closing date for filing submissions is June 16, 2016. The Ministry also stated that submissions will be made public if the person that filed the submission agrees that his or her submission is made public.

The regulations of the innovation box scheme are being adjusted as a consequence of what was agreed with respect to Action 5 of the OECD’s BEPS Action Plan.

The draft law proposal intends to amend the regulations of the innovation box in such way that the ‘new’ scheme will be in line with what was agreed upon within the OECD. Intangible assets ‘produced’ after June 30, 2016 will have to meet the conditions laid down in this law proposal for the innovation box scheme to still apply from January 1, 2017 onwards.

Firstly some additions are made to the existing regulations in order to ensure that the profits that are being allocated to the innovation box scheme have sufficient substance in the Netherlands. This is achieved by applying the so-called nexus approach.

Furthermore, the conditions that have to be met for being able to access the scheme are being amended. Under the new regulations, for all taxpayers, a so-called R & D statement must be issued with respect to the intangible asset, so that it is ensured the respective asset indeed constitutes a technical innovation. For large taxpayers (roughly speaking a taxpayer with an innovation box advantage that exceeds € 37.5 million over a five year period and which has net sales exceeding € 250 million in that same period) the asset, or a therewith related asset must be either a patent, plant breeder’s right, software or an exclusive license for the innovation box scheme to apply to such asset.

Click here to be forwarded to the draft law proposal as made available by the Dutch Government (downloadable Pdf file).

Submission can be filed via www.internetconsultatie.nl/innovatiebox. More information on the consultation can also be found there.

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