Posted by Henri M
on 21/10/2009, 16:18:05, in reply to "Re: Princess Máxima"
85.145.85.203
Your post is not entirely correct. All Oranges do pay taxes with three notable excemptions:
- the allowances given to the Queen, the Prince of Orange and Princess Máxima are netto
- the inheritances to the present and the future Sovereign are free of succession taxes
- Gifts to the present and the future Sovereign are free of taxation ('schenkingsrecht')
To begin with the last two: this is explicitly done because the inheritance to the (future) Sovereign also holds valuables which are of importance for the royal function. For an example the inventory of royal palaces,the archives, the carriages, the jewels. Since Queen Juliana has placed the bulk of the valuables in Foundations, the importance of these two exceptions have decreased. Indeed the Government can decide to scrap these.
That the incomes for the Queen, the Prince of Orange and Princess Máxima are netto (no income tax and no social security premies) are pretty logical and is in fact also done to people who receive social benefits ('bijstand'): they receive the netto amound. On their benefits slip they can see that from the bruto money there were reservations for vacation money, social security, etc.
Since the Queen and the Prince and Princess will never ask for social security and do not have a pension it is logical that the amount is netto. But if it is better for publicity to have this amount as bruto, well, no problem.
For the rest it does not matter if the source of the fortune partly has been made up from taxpayer's money. Otherwise all these medical specialists making 10 times the salary of a minister and purchasing holiday estates in the Dordogne or in Tuscany are also doing it "from our taxpayer's money". No difference in that.
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