‘Cherry picking through Brussels’ | What you say

Brussels wants the Netherlands to do something about the mortgage deduction. This meddling focuses on a financial advantage that homeowners would have by being able to partially deduct the mortgage.

Brussels ‘forgets’ to look at the complete wallet of the Dutchman. The Netherlands therefore does not rightly point out the following points:

1. Due to their calculation rules, the Dutch government prohibits pension indexations, while pension funds could have done this for years. Retirees are disadvantaged.
2. Savings tax: Brussels says nothing about this theft by the government.
3. A Dutch person pays an extremely high tax on a car. A Ford Mustang in Belgium and Germany: 58,000 euros. In the Netherlands: 108,000 euros. A BPM of 50,000 euros! A very large inequality compared to direct neighbours.
4. A Dutch person pays, of the EU countries, almost the most for fuel thanks to the tax by the government.
5. Food costs are significantly higher than in a neighboring country such as Germany.

In short, Brussels may be critical, but forget to take important costs and disadvantages into account.

So that’s cherry picking through Brussels. The question is who provides the officials in Brussels with knowledge.

Peter Vereecken, Haarlem

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