Cross-Border Impact Assessment 2016: Summary

1a. Netherlands-Germany tax treaty – Labour: In the light of the new tax treaty between the Netherlands and Germany, which entered into force on 1 January 2016, this dossier looks at the changes the new treaty brings for frontier workers. The focus in this regard is on all the frontier workers who are crossing the border between Germany and the Netherlands.

1b. Netherlands-Germany tax treaty – Pensions: One aspect of the new treaty in particular attracted a great deal of attention: the new article governing pensions. The change, known as the ‘€15,000 threshold,’ which was implemented in this article as a change from the old treaty, entails a number of financial consequences for retirees residing in Germany and who have accrued pension in the Netherlands. The research considered specifically from a Dutch tax law perspective what the impact of the new pension article on post-active German frontier workers will be.

2. Recognition of professional qualifications: Central within this research into the recognition of professional qualifications is the question of how certain practical matters that are of particular importance to the frontier worker are to be implemented and enforced in certain countries/states after the modernization of Directive 2005/36/EC brought about by Directive 2013/55/EU.

3. INTERREG programmes: The research within this dossier is a survey and comparative study of the three INTERREG VA programmes on the Dutch border. The research framework was defined to include the INTERREG programme Germany-Netherlands, the INTERREG VA programme Euregio Meuse-Rhein (a German-Dutch-Belgian programme) and the INTERREG VA programme Flanders-Netherlands.

4. Social security: This research focuses on the Dutch short-term and long-term incapacity for work (illness and occupational disability) and the effects of this system in a cross-border situation. The reason for this choice is that the Dutch systems put in place to support these two social security risks have been fundamentally restructured over the past two decades, and additionally, they differ significantly from the systems in other Member States.

5. Qualifying foreign tax obligation: On 1 January 2015, the optional scheme for the income tax, was replaced by the new system of the qualifying foreign taxpayer. The qualifying foreign taxpayer is entitled to the same deductions and tax credits as domestic taxpayers. The optional scheme was replaced because it was deemed to be not compatible with EU law. In this dossier we examine the extent to which the new scheme of the qualifying foreign taxpayer is in accordance with EU law.

6. Posting of workers obligation: Cross-border posting of workers is a phenomenon that appears to be happening more and more often. The research discusses the proposed revision of the Posting of workers directive and its potential legal consequences on Dutch labour law.

7. Retirement ages: For ITEM, the legislative proposal was a reason to call attention, by means of a letter to the Standing Committee for Social Affairs and Employment, to the position of employees who have accrued both a Dutch general old-age pension and a foreign statutory pension.That is the subject of this dossier.

8. Cross-border employment services: The research into the ‘Effects of mandate and capacities of the Dutch UWV’ revolves around the question of what effects the current mandate and capacities of the Dutch public service, the UWV, have on the performance of cross-border labour mediation along the border with Belgium and Germany.

9. Cross-border train travel: Two effects of the Fourth Railway Package are studied in this dossier: firstly, the implications of the railway package on the supply of cross-border transportation, both public and commercial (European integration), and secondly, the enhancement of cross-border governance structures (Regional cohesion).

10. Belgian toll system for lorries: Until now, there has been no study to examine the specific impact of this new toll system on the logistics and forwarding companies in the area of the German-Dutch region close to the Belgian border. This has therefore been the focus of this dossier.