South African companies in the Dutch tax haven

2016-09-01

Fourteen of the twenty largest company on the Johannesburg stock exchange have at least one subsidiary in the Netherlands. 20 billion Euro coming directly from South Africa is stored in Dutch shell companies.

Dutch tax law favours foreign companies and the country has many tax treaties with other countries all over the world. Multinational corporations therefore use the Netherlands as a pass-through, in an effort to lower their tax burden.

A team of Dutch and South African journalists analysed financial structures of several of these South African companies and showed the ways in which both companies are intertwined. Published in weeklies De Groene Amsterdammer and Mail & Guardian.

This investigation was funded through Journalismfund.eu's Connecting Continents programme.

Photo CC © screenpunk

Team members

Guido van Eijck

Guido van Eijck (1987) is a Dutch freelance investigative journalist. His articles were published in, among others, weekly De Groene Amsterdammer and daily de Volkskrant.

Jules van Hal

Jules van Hal (1987) worked as a contributing editor for the journalistic start-up Yournalism.

Phillip de Wet

Phillip de Wet is an associate editor at at Business Insider, Media24 (South Africa).

Supported

A grant of €8.500, allocated on 6 October 2015

CC/2015/040

Grant

Connecting Continents

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