Ministers have been given until the summer to come up with a plan to stop foreign firms setting up shop in the Netherlands with the sole purpose of reducing their tax bill.

A majority of MPs, including the ruling Labour party, voted in favour of a motion calling on ministers to come up with a plan to reduce the Netherlands’ role as a location to simply transfer money.

The motion quoted Labour leader Diederik Samsom, who told a television show last month: ‘I don’t like the idea the Netherlands is a tax haven… I think it is a bad idea to levy little tax on companies that don’t do anything here, but just move money along.’

The motion gave ministers a deadline of June to come up with proposals.

Trouw

Meanwhile, newspaper Trouw is refusing to give the tax office access to a list of millionaires with billions of euros stashed away in offshore accounts.

Last week it emerged that a 15-month investigation by 46 investigative journalists had uncovered information about the tax haven habits of some 120,000 offshore companies and nearly 130,000 individuals. Trouw was one of the publications involved.

Junior finance minister Frans Weekers said at the time he planned to cancel leave so that officials could comb the list looking for Dutch names.