National reports: Netherlands

Brief description of the tax history of the Netherlands within the theme of the book 'The Dialectical Relationship between Taxation and the Political Balance of Power'. After an introduction of taxation in the Netherlands in the periode 16th-19th century the introduction of modern wage tax, corporation tax and dividend withholding tax during World War II is analyzed. The chapter ends with the developments in the 20th century, when icome tax was used to discriminate between men and women and married and unmarried persons. This discrimination was only redressed towards the end of the last century. The conclusion is that in the Nerherlands, taxes have been an accelerator of societal changes (both good and bad) but also have lagged behind societal change.