Newsarchive May 2010

29-05-'10 The Hague scores high as liveable city
28-05-'10 Lucie Scott new Executive Director Access
21-05-'10 Join the seventh international innovation competition
18-05-'10 Upcoming events
17-05-'10 Competitive Alternatives 2010 Special Report: Focus on Tax

The Hague scores high as liveable city

The Hague is becoming a more and more popular city to live in. The city has become a more attractive place in which to live over the last five years. It has also improved in social-economic terms compared to 2004, according to a report by the Atlas voor gemeenten.

The Hague has been a popular residential city for some time. According to the researchers, the Netherlands has only three other municipalities which are more attractive: Amsterdam, Utrecht and Amstelveen.

The Hague can thank its high ranking mainly to coming in first place for accessibility. Out of the 50 largest Dutch municipalities residents of The Hague have the easiest time getting back and forth to their work. During rush hour it is more difficult to get around the city, but excellent public transportation more than makes up for this deficiency, the researches from the Atlas van gemeenten concluded.

Culinary
The large culinary (5th place) and cultural (8th place) offer in the city pushed The Hague up the list. The city’s appeal, however, was mitigated somewhat by a relative lack of safety. Taking 36th place among the 50 municipalities in the study, The Hague could be labeled ‘dangerous’. However, the city is still safer than other big cities like Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Utrecht and Eindhoven, say the researchers.

Deputy Mayor Frits Huffnagel (City Marketing) is extremely pleased with the results. ‘It has naturally been a joint effort by the Municipal Executive,’ he explains, ‘but you see that city marketing is paying off. We are pushing the culinary and cultural side of the city and we scored well for these points.’

Huffnagel says it is only logical that The Hague is less safe than the average municipality. ‘A more provincial city has other problems,’ he said. ‘I’m especially happy that of the five largest cities in the Netherlands, The Hague has the best rankings in terms of safety.’

Welfare
The city scores less well in terms of its social-economic position, although at 32nd place this year it has climbed higher in the rankings than five years ago.

The municipality is mainly hindered by the large number of residents receiving welfare benefits. Only three cities have more people qualifying for welfare (social security) benefits as a percentage of the working population. There is also great poverty, affecting one out of seven residents of The Hague, according to the report.

Atlas voor gemeenten
Researchers from the Atlas voor gemeenten aim to describe and explain as precisely as possible the differences between Dutch neighbourhoods, cities and regions.

Source : www.denhaag.nl

Article added on 29-05-'10.

Lucie Scott new Executive Director Access

ACCESS, the non-profit organisation committed to supporting the international expatriate community in the Netherlands, has appointed Lucie Scott as its new Executive Director. ACCESS will optimise its services in the coming years from its new premises in the NGO office building at the Zeestraat in The Hague.

About Lucie Scott

Lucie Scott is British, married and the mother of two young children. She has worked and lived in the UK and Australia and has lived the Netherlands for the past two years. Ms Scott has a marketing and advertising background. Her previous roles include marketing director and brand manager in the publishing industry.

'The Board was able to identify a number of good and enthusiastic candidates in its search for a new executive director and concluded that Lucie’s experience, skills and personality best meet the needs of ACCESS in the next period of its history', explained Kiri Kikis, Chairman of the Board of ACCESS.

Ms. Scott replaces Gonda Labruyere, who stepped down at the end of 2009.

ACCESS

The ACCESS volunteer organisation was founded in 1986 and has national coverage with branches in Amsterdam and The Hague. ACCESS provides practical help for expatriates including applying for a driving license, counselling and finding schooling for children. The organisation maintains a helpline, help desks, publications and website.

ACCESS has approximately 160 volunteers representing 30 different nationalities. It is funded by ABN-AMRO, the Chamber of Commerce, the municipalities of The Hague and Amsterdam and the WestHolland Foreign Investment Agency. ACCESS was recently awarded 'Expat Service Provider of the Year '.

Visit the website of ACCESS for more information.

Article added on 28-05-'10.

Join the seventh international innovation competition

Once again the Kennisalliantie organizes the European Satellite Navigation Competition.

Sign up for the competition from May 1st till July 31st 2010 at www.galileo-masters.eu

More info:
www.kennisalliantie.nl
015-2840487

Article added on 21-05-'10.

Upcoming events

June 1st - 18th: World Expo, Shanghai, PRC
Holland week

June 26th - 30th: The World Congress on Industrial Biotechnology & Bioprocessing, Washington DC, USA

if you would like to meet with one of our business advisors please contact us

Article added on 18-05-'10.

Competitive Alternatives 2010 Special Report: Focus on Tax

Competitive Alternatives 2010 Special Report: Focus on Tax reveals that Mexico remains in the number one spot for having the lowest total taxes, but that changes to the tax systems in Australia, Canada, and the Netherlands that have enhanced their attractiveness as tax friendly environments.

Tax Competitiveness – 2010 and 2008 Rankings by Country
Rank	Country	Total Tax Index 2010	2008 Rank
1	Mexico	59.9	1
2	Canada	63.9	3
3	Netherlands	76.4	2
4	Australia	80.8	4
5	United Kingdom	88.0	6
6	United States	100.0	5
7	Germany	124.1	8
8	Italy	129.6	9
9	Japan	138.0	7
10	France	181.4	10

The report assesses the general tax competitiveness of 95 cities in 10 countries (Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States). The analysis focuses on 41 major cities with populations greater than 2 million, and compares the total tax burden faced by companies, including income tax, capital tax, sales tax, property tax, miscellaneous local business taxes, and statutory labor costs.

The report compares the total tax cost between countries and cities using a Total Tax Index (TTI) score for each location, expressed as a percentage of total taxes paid by corporations in the US. A lower score is better since it means lower tax costs for businesses.

Among the countries studied, Mexico has the lowest TTI at 59.9; in other words, total tax costs in Mexico are 40.1 percent lower than in the US, which has a TTI of 100.0. Canada, the Netherlands, Australia, and the UK also have TTI ratings below the US. At the other end of the spectrum, France’s TTI of 181.4 signifies that its total tax costs are 81.4 percent higher than the US standard.

"Our study reveals that there is no standard approach in setting tax policy among the countries examined," says Greg Wiebe, KPMG Canada’s Managing Partner, Tax. "Although the types of taxes used to raise government revenues are more or less the same, there is a huge range in how these taxes are weighted and applied. A country’s tax policy choices can significantly affect the tax cost of doing business in that country."

The TTI rankings of countries in 2010 are generally consistent with the 2008 rankings. Canada has moved ahead of the Netherlands, and the UK has moved ahead of the United States—although, these pairs of countries were very closely grouped in 2008, such that marginal changes in TTI have resulted in changes in rankings. The more substantive changes between 2008 and 2010 are:

Japan falls two places, from seventh to ninth, and is the only country to see an increase in its TTI between 2008 and 2010. This is largely due to the strong appreciation of the Japanese yen over the last 2 years, which increases the cost (in US dollars) of non-income based taxes paid in Japan.
Italy moves up one ranking, from ninth to eighth, and sees the largest decrease in TTI of any country. This improvement for Italy is largely due to economic stimulus tax incentives offered in Italy for new business investment occurring in 2010; therefore, this improvement may well be short lived.
Australia’s rank does not change—remaining in fourth place—but it sees the second largest decrease in TTI among the countries studied. This improvement is largely due to changes in Australia’s R&D tax incentives in 2010.

Overall, the changes in TTI for all countries are the product of a number of factors, including:

Changes in tax rates, including tax rate increases in Mexico and decreases in Canada.
Incentive changes, including new or enhanced incentives in Australia, Italy, and Japan.
Exchange rate changes, including the significant appreciation of the Japanese yen and the significant depreciation of the British pound over the last 2 years. Changes in exchange rates influence the TTI results by changing the US dollar cost associated with taxes not based on income.
Lesser factors, including changes in underlying business costs in each location (e.g., property values and labor rates), an expansion of the analysis from 10 types of business operations in 2008 to 17 in 2010, and changes in the mix of cities examined in each country.

"Income taxes typically represent up to 12 percent of location-sensitive costs. This cost is relatively low compared to other costs, such as labor (46–85 percent of location-specific costs), facilities (2–18 percent), and transportation (5–18 percent). However, even though taxes do not comprise the largest proportion of overall costs, there is much greater variation in tax costs among locations. Since tax costs are likely to range more widely than other costs, they can take on greater importance than other costs in business location decisions," says Greg Wiebe.

The analysis is based on cost information collected primarily between July 2009 and January 2010. Taxes reflect tax rates in effect on January 1, 2010, and also incorporate any announced changes at that time to take effect at specified later dates. Tax rates and other tax-related information are also subject to further change as a result of new legislation, judicial decisions, and administrative pronouncements. Of course, exchange rates and other cost factors will change over time.

source: http://www.competitivealternatives.com/highlights/taxfocus.aspx

Article added on 17-05-'10.