Dutch multinationals pay barely any tax on their profits in the Netherlands. The Dutch treasury is missing out on 16 billion euros of corporate taxes a year – or 2,200 euros per head of the population.

The figures emerge from a study by Utrecht University commissioned by the television documentary programme Zembla. The team behind the study was headed by tax law professor Geerten Michielse, who also works for the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. He told Radio Netherlands Worldwide that the United States was right to describe the Netherlands as a tax paradise in May this year - an assertion which the White House subsequently withdrew following Dutch finance ministry protests.

Multinationals such as Boeing, US Steel and Walt Disney all have Dutch letter-box companies to avoid paying tax in the United States. On paper, US companies make 13 percent of their profits in the Netherlands. The study found that while multinationals are officially liable to pay 25.5 percent in corporate tax, in reality loopholes in the tax law allow them to get away with paying no more than six or seven percent.

Socialist Party MP Farshad Bashir has called for a debate in parliament on the missing tax billions. He says that Dutch multinationals such as Philips and Shell benefit from tax laws aimed at attracting foreign multinationals: "It means that we bring in two or three billion from all the companies located here, but miss out on 16 billion euros because our own multinationals also pay too little."