ABN AMRO must pay a fine of 14 million euros for complicity in tax evasion. The Public Prosecution Service accuses the bank of deliberately filing incorrect corporate income tax returns.
Research by the Fiscal Information and Investigation Service (FIOD) shows that the Dutch subsidiary of a foreign bank filed five corporate income tax returns between 2009 and 2013. In those returns, 124 million euros in dividend tax was settled. According to the Public Prosecution Service (OM), these returns were “deliberately filed incorrectly”.
ABN AMRO emphasizes that it was “not involved” in the tax returns. Predecessor Fortis was involved in “transactions in Dutch derivatives and shares with this foreign financial institution”.
“ABN AMRO will pay a fine of 14 million euros,” the bank writes in a press release. By paying, “ABN AMRO closes an old file that originated with Fortis.” Fortis merged with several other banks in 2010 to form ABN AMRO.