Draft legislation introducing a new tax on banks next year will also include an extra tax of 5% for banks which pay excessive bonuses to executives, the Volkskrant reports on Friday.

The extra tax will be imposed on banks which pay executives a bonus of more than one year’s salary, the paper said on its website.
The aim of the bank tax is to raise some €300m a year. Risky short-term debt will be taxed at a higher rate than long-term loans. The cabinet says the tax is justified because several banks were saved by billions of euros of taxpayers’ money during the 2008 crisis.
‘Now the time is right to ask for something back,’ the Volkskrant quoted junior finance minister Frans Weekers as saying after the weekly cabinet meeting.
He admitted banks would be able to pass the extra costs on to consumers but said he hoped they would primarily cut their own costs and bonuses.
Listed companies
Meanwhile, economic affairs minister Maxime Verhagen said on Friday the executives of listed companies should limit themselves to a golden handshake of no more than one year’s salary if they leave a company because of a difference of opinion.
However, the minister is opposed to anchoring some parts of the voluntary corporate governance code – which covers executive pay and standards – in law.
If this happened, managers would instead start ticking items off lists, rather than ‘thinking about what is socially acceptable’, Verhagen said.
Verhagen made his remarks in a speech at the presentation of a new report on monitoring corporate governance.