Despite the commitment to end it, KLM still facilitates tax avoidance by its own pilots and cabin crew. This is the conclusion of the state agent who has been appointed to the company by the Minister of Finance. Minister Sigrid Kaag calls the situation ‘undesirable’ and will address KLM about this.
Almost two years ago reported news hour Which several hundred KLM and Transavia pilots avoid tax. They live abroad and that can be very beneficial for their tax return.
Condition support package
Pilots who pay lower income tax abroad and work from Schiphol can do so, among other things, because they fly at a greatly reduced rate with their own company. KLM pilots fly cheaply from their place of residence abroad to Schiphol as a passenger, work from there for a period and then fly cheaply back to their home abroad.
KLM had to put an end to this, as a condition of the support package that the airline received to get through the corona crisis. KLM has informed the state agent that it has complied with this requirement.
State agent Jeroen Kremers monitors on behalf of the government whether the billions of aid are being spent well. In his report he writes that KLM has informed him that “only a very small part of the staff lives abroad” and that this is not illegal.
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Keep job
Kremers, however, observes something completely different: according to him, 11 percent of KLM pilots and five percent of cabin crew still live abroad. That’s about 350 pilots and 330 cabin crew. “It is irrelevant whether it is illegal to live abroad for the assessment of whether there is tax avoidance by these employees, contrary to what KLM reports.”
According to the state agent, KLM goes “against the spirit of the law”. According to Kremers, this weighs extra heavily now that KLM “is kept afloat with taxpayers’ money. The KLM employees whose jobs can be preserved as a result of this support, including employees who live outside the Netherlands, benefit from this support from the Dutch taxpayer.”
In a response, Minister Kaag of Finance says that he finds tax avoidance by KLM “undesirable”. KLM reports that it is in talks with the state agent. The House of Representatives will debate the matter on Wednesday.
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