The Dutch tax authorities are our ‘friend’ and ‘friend’.

MacGann, Uber’s top lobbyist from 2014 to 2016, shared more than 100,000 documents with international media last year. The ‘Uber Files’ show, among other things, how the taxi company broke the law and maintained close ties with politicians in an attempt to change these rules. The Netherlands plays an important role, a parliamentary committee said Tuesday, calling for a whistleblower.

According to MacGann, Uber set up its headquarters in Amsterdam in 2012. The company only had to pay tax on 1 percent of its profits in the Netherlands outside the United States, which was taxed at 25 percent. Uber was able to make the other 99 percent of its international profits through the Cayman Islands and the Bahamas. “In those days, the Netherlands was a very attractive, low-tax haven,” says Makan. He didn’t know if that was still the case.

Also, he outlines that the Tax and Customs Administration has behaved as a ‘friend’ and a ‘friend’. Hands on, from leaked documents Faith And The Financial TimesIt has already emerged that Uber’s then head of tax affairs described tax authorities similarly in correspondence with US colleagues.

For example, the Tax and Customs Administration reportedly delayed sharing driver data with other European tax authorities when these officials suspected that Uber drivers were paying too little tax. The Tax and Customs Administration sent Uber confidential information from European discussions with these tax authorities. The whistleblower confirmed this and called the Dutch tax authorities ‘our best ambassadors in EU tax consultations’.

A blatant violation of the law, tax law professor John Van de Streek ruled last summer. Faith After looking at the documents from the Uber files. After an internal investigation, the Tax and Customs Administration itself said nothing illegal had happened.

‘Unfair’ access to power

In the past decade, the Netherlands has been very keen to welcome Uber because of the promise of its future, MacGann thinks. “Not only did we have the headlines, we had $10 billion in venture capital in our pocket.” This attitude can also explain his view that access to power is unfair. “We went to Davos and approached Rutte and the people we needed.”

A text message sent by former European Commissioner and VVD member Neely Kroes to Prime Minister Rudd in 2015 became famous. ‘Could be my grandson’, he wrote of now-resigned Uber CEO Travis Kalanick. “You should meet him.” That same year, a meeting was held in San Francisco, which Croce attended. Rutte Kalanick suggested contacting State Secretary Dijksma to see if the Dutch rules could be modified. He also advised Uber to “emphasize the positives” in order to appear “aggressive.”

At the time, Uber was trying to get the Netherlands to allow the banned app Uberpop. Meanwhile, the company illegally kept the app on the air, causing the Human Environment and Traffic Inspectorate to raid the company’s offices in 2015. This happened more than a year after the application was introduced: according to MacGann, the Netherlands was too lax in its enforcement.

When asked about Neely Groce’s role, the former lobbyist declined to go into detail at a time when he was not allowed to carry out lobbying work as a former European commissioner. “I don’t want to undermine any research. “However, the data I have shows that the person in question provided channels to the Dutch government,” MacGann said.

European fraud watchdog OLAF is currently investigating whether Gros breached lobbying rules for former European commissioners. He denies this, saying that Uber appreciates his role as a special envoy to improve the start-up and scale-up climate on behalf of the Netherlands.