The Netherlands

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The Ministry of Finance (Ministerie van Financiën; Fin) is the Dutch ministry of finance: it is occupied with the national budget, taxation and financial economic policy, including supervision of financial markets. The current minister is Wouter Bos. He is aided by a state secretary Jan Kees de Jager.

Responsibilities

The ministry has the duty to "guard the treasury and aim for a financially sound and prosperous state of the Netherlands’" ^[1].

• It is responsible for the income and expenditure of the Kingdom.
• It collects the taxes and develops fiscal legislation.
• It seeks to expend the budget of the government responsibly, efficiently and effectively.
• It is also responsible for financial-economic policy.
• It supervises the financial markets, banks and financial transfers.

Organisation

The ministry is currently headed by one ministers and one state secretary. The ministry's main office is located in the centre of the Hague at the Korte Voorhout. Since March 2006 the ministry is renovated and it is temporarily housed in the Prinessenhof. It employes almost 1,500 civil servants. The civil service is headed by a secretary general and a deputy secretary general, who head a system of four directorates general:

• General Thesaury (financial economic policy)
• Directorate General for the Budget
• Directorate General for Fiscal Affairs
• Directorate General for Taxation

It is also responsible for several decentralized services:

• The agency in Amsterdam
• The Tax and Customs Administration (Dutch: Belastingdienst), the Dutch revenue service, which includes the customs service and the fiscal police
• Service for State Property

The ministry also owns most of the shares the Dutch government owns, which are all nationalized companies. These include

• Connexxion Holding NV (33%)
• Centrale Organisatie voor Radio-actief Afval (COVRA) NV (100%)
• De Nederlandsche Bank NV (100%)
• Koninklijke Nederlandse Munt NV (100%)
• NV Nederlandse Gasunie (100%)
• NV Nederlandse Spoorwegen (100%)
• NOB Holding (100%)
• NV Luchthaven Schiphol (75,8%)
• Havenbedrijf Rotterdam (33%)
• Gasterra (voorheen Gasunie T&S) (10%)
• Koninklijke Luchtvaart Maatschappij NV (5,9%)

History

The ministry was founded in 1813. Since 1965 a state secretary has been appointed each formation with responsibility for taxation.

Ministers

The following politicians have held this position between 1989 and now.

• 2007-now Wouter Bos (PvdA)
  • 2007-now Jan Kees de Jager (CDA)
• 2003-2007 Gerrit Zalm (VVD)
  • 2003-2006 Joop Wijn (CDA)
• 2002-2003 Hans Hoogervorst (VVD)
  • 2002-2003 Steven van Eijk (LPF)
• 1994-2002 Gerrit Zalm (VVD)
  • 2000-2002 Wouter Bos (PvdA)
  • 1994-2000 Willem Vermeend (PvdA)
• 1989-1994 Wim Kok (PvdA)
  • 1989-1994 Marius van Amelsvoort (CDA)

See also

• Income tax in the Netherlands

References

1. ^ ministry of finance website

External links

• Ministry of finance