By Robin van Daalen
AMSTERDAM--The Dutch government is convinced that its tax deal
with Starbucks Corp. (SBUX) didn't constitute illegal State aid and
that it didn't give the U.S. coffee chain a selective advantage,
State Secretary of Finance Eric Wiebes said.
"Considering that the transfer prices of Starbucks Manufacturing
BV are set in line with OECD principles, and the national
legislation which is based on those, there is no question of a
selective advantage for Starbucks," Mr. Wiebes wrote in a letter to
parliament Friday, in response to details of a probe published by
the European Commission.
He added that he's convinced the probe would ultimately conclude
that the tax deal with Starbucks didn't constitute state-aid.
Earlier Friday, European Union regulators published a letter to
the Dutch government explaining why they think a tax deal struck by
Starbucks in the Netherlands may amount to illegal state aid in the
next phase of an investigation that could lead to back tax
payments.
The EU probe comes at a time when multinationals are facing
heightened scrutiny on tax avoidance. Tax deals struck by Apple
Inc. in Ireland and Amazon.com Inc. and Fiat SpA in Luxembourg are
also under investigation by the EU.
Write to Robin van Daalen at Robin.vandaalen@wsj.com
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