Press release: State aid: Commission adopts three decisions requiring taxation of ports in the Netherlands, Belgium and France

On 21 January 2016 the Commission required the Netherlands to abolish an exemption from corporate tax for its six seaports so as to align the regime with European Union state aid rules. The Commission concluded that the exemption has to be abolished in order to remove the resulting distortions of competition, giving the Netherlands two months to take the necessary steps to remove the exemption in order to ensure that from 1 January 2017 the six ports are subject to the same corporate taxation rules.

The Commission also proposed in two separate decisions that Belgium and France align their taxation of ports with state aid rules. The Commission took the preliminary view that, in both Belgium and France, the existing regimes provided the ports with a selective advantage that might breach EU state aid rules. The proposed measures to Belgium and France would adapt their legislation in order to ensure public or private ports pay corporate tax on their economic activities in the same way as other companies in Belgium and France, respectively.