Dozens of Dutch tax officers investigating Panama leads

[May 10, 2016]  AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Several dozen tax officers in the Netherlands have started chasing leads on possible tax evasion after 250 Dutch offshore entities were named in the Panama Papers leaks, an official said on Tuesday.

Data analysts and a special unit that investigates tax structures are looking into possible Dutch links to the clients of Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca, Adriaan Ros, spokesman for the Dutch tax authority, said.

"If there has been fraud, then of course we will act," Ros said. "The process of sifting through all this information is going to take months rather than weeks."

The findings are due to be presented to parliament in a public report.

The Netherlands has tax treaties with around 100 countries which enable corporations to shift profits to tax havens, often lowering their tax rates to single digits.

(Reporting by Anthony Deutsch; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)

[© 2016 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved.]

Copyright 2016 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.