The remediation costs of 250 million euros and the compensation of 100 million euros that 3M pays to the government for the PFOS pollution in Zwijndrecht, the company can deduct from its taxable profit. That writes De Standaard today.
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The American chemical company 3M is allocating 571 million euros for costs related to the PFOS pollution in and around the factory in Zwijndrecht. It agreed this week with the Flemish government. At least 250 million of the amount will be spent directly on remediation measures. This concerns, among other things, the remediation of the contaminated soil in the residential areas near the factory. For the company, this is a tax-deductible expense, tax experts confirm.
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“The principle is very clear,” says Michel Maus, professor of tax law at the VUB and tax lawyer at Bloom Law. “Expenses incurred by the company to obtain or maintain taxable income are deductible. If the company has entered into a settlement agreement with the government, those expenses can be considered deductible expenses.”
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A quarter of the cost of remediation for taxpayers
In concrete terms, this means that the expenses can be deducted from the taxable profit. This applies not only to the remediation costs themselves, but also to the compensation of 100 million euros that 3M pays to the government. Since the corporate tax rate in Belgium is 25 percent, this means that a quarter of the cost of the remediation is borne by the taxpayer.
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An interesting fact is that corporate tax is paid to the federal treasury. The loss of tax revenue therefore affects all Belgian taxpayers, while the agreement with 3M has been concluded by the Flemish government.
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The company could not confirm whether 3M will indeed deduct the expenses. The communications team promised to respond to that question “within a reasonable time.”
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