The Netherlands: Asset tax system gets overhaul, 1.3 million people will pay no tax on savings

The Dutch cabinet plans to overhaul the system for taxing savings, which will lead to no asset tax bills for 1.3 million people and 500,000 facing lower payments.

Tax minister Menno Snel said in April the cabinet was looking into ways of cutting the amount of tax paid by people whose assets are primarily in the form of savings.

The government currently uses ‘fictitious interest rates’ of upwards of 2% to decide how much income people have from their assets, and levies tax of 30% on assets over €30,360 (double for a couple).

But at the moment, most savings accounts have interest rates of around zero and people are paying tax on income they have not realized.

Under the new set-up, which will come into effect in 2022, assets would be divided into three categories: savings, investments and debt. Savings over €30,360 would be taxed in line with current interest rates, rather than a fictitious amount.

Read more at: Asset tax system gets overhaul, 1.3 million people will pay no tax on savings - DutchNews.nl

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The Netherlands: Insurance premiums to go up next year says Government

Read more at: 

https://nltimes.nl/2019/09/05/health-insurance-premiums-expected-increase-eu3-per-month-next-year-report

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The Breakup of the UK: The Story of Boris and Václav, or How to Break Up the UK - by Thomas de Waal

Boris Johnson could end up being the English leader who allowed the breakup of the UK to achieve Brexit. There are lessons in the dissolution of two other unions, the USSR and Czechoslovakia, and the role played by Boris Yeltsin and Václav Klaus.

Read more at: The Story of Boris and Václav, or How to Break Up the UK - Carnegie Europe - Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

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Britain-Brexit: Boris Johnson suffers Commons defeat as Tories turn against him - by Heather Stewart and Peter Walker

Boris Johnson has announced he will ask parliament to support plans for a snap October general election after suffering a humiliating defeat in his first House of Commons vote as prime minister.

Former cabinet ministers including Philip Hammond and David Gauke were among 21 Tory rebels who banded together with opposition MPs to seize control of the parliamentary timetable on a dramatic day in Westminster.

The move was aimed at paving the way for a bill tabled by the Labour backbencher Hilary Benn, which is designed to block a no-deal Brexit by forcing the prime minister to request an extension to article 50 if he cannot strike a reworked deal with the EU27.

Johnson lost the vote by 328 to 301, a convincing majority for the rebels of 27.

The PM had earlier described the legislation, drawn up by a cross-party coalition including the senior Tories Oliver Letwin and Dominic Grieve, as “Jeremy Corbyn’s surrender bill”.

After his defeat, Johnson said he would never request the delay mandated in the rebels’ bill, which he said would “hand control of the negotiations to the EU”.

If MPs passed the bill on Wednesday, he said, “the people of this country will have to choose” in an election that he would seek to schedule for 15 October.

Read more at: Boris Johnson suffers Commons defeat as Tories turn against him | Politics | The Guardian

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The Netherlands: EUROVISION: the popular Song contest will be held in Rotterdam next year

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https://nltimes.nl/2019/08/30/eurovision-song-contest-held-rotterdam

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German elections: Far-right AfD falls short of first place in both German state elections – by Claire Stam

The right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) achieved historical gains in crucial elections in the eastern German states of Saxony and Brandenburg but Chancellor Angela Merkel’s CDU and its socialist coalition partner remain the strongest political parties, allowing the current grand coalition to hold until 2021.

Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU) remain the strongest party in Saxony with 32% (down from 39,4% in the last elections in 2014), with the AfD and the German Greens (Bündnis90/Die Grünen) achieving their best election results in the history of Saxony regional elections (respectively 27,3% and 8,8% vs 9,7% and 5,7%). The Social-Democrats (SPD) came out with a record low of 7,9%, compared to 12,4% five years ago.

In Brandenburg, the state neighbouring Berlin, the SPD held on to the top spot with 27.2%, albeit down from 31.9% in the previous election in 2014, while the AfD rose to 22,7%, up from 12,2% in the last elections, and the Greens reached 10,2%, from 6,2% five years ago.

Left-Wing Die Linke, which has historically performed well in eastern Germany, turns out to be a big loser in both states where voters who traditionally chose the party as a form of protest clearly migrated to the AfD.

Read more: Far-right AfD falls short of first place in both German state elections – EURACTIV.com

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Scotland: Nicola Sturgeon: Parliament suspension may make Scottish independence 'inevitable'

Boris Johnson‘s controversial decision to suspend Parliament in the build up to Brexit may be the moment that Scottish independence became “completely inevitable”, Nicola Sturgeon has said. 

The Scottish First Minister claimed that support for leaving the UK was growing with each passing day, accusing the Prime Minister of acting like “some kind of tinpot dictator”.

She also said the suspension proved Mr Johnson would be willing to shut down the Scottish Parliament to achieve his political aims, a suggestion she had previously regarded as “silly”.

But the Scottish Conservatives backed the move, arguing there would still be “ample” time for MPs to debate Brexit and describing the SNP‘s reaction as “predictably hysterical”.

Read more: Nicola Sturgeon: Parliament suspension may make Scottish independence 'inevitable'

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