How Amway Avoid Taxes Through The Netherlands

Betsy deVos, Amway, Doug DeVos

 

According to Dutch business magazine quotenet.nl – a Hearst Netherlands magazine –  Amway is avoiding tax through the Netherlands.

On request of our readers we have translated the facts in the article and took the political statements out.

Amway has many holdings headquartered in the city of Venlo, the Netherlands

There is Amway Asia Pacific Holding, resides in the province of Limburg (Netherlands), and also provides an annual report here, but it says that this financial statement is addressed to the management of Amway Asia Pacific in Hamilton, capital of the low tax island of Bermuda.

It looks like the hybrid construction that Apple has set up in Ireland and Bermuda, which lies heavy under fire in Brussels – Belgium at the European commission. On a balance sheet of $126,000 in 2014 Amway Asia Pacific Holding company made $567 million profit. There is only one person on that payroll.

Sister company GDA is a participation holding for Hong Kong, Taiwan, Macao, Ukraine, Russia and Malaysia. This company is owned by Amway Netherlands ltd. located in Delaware, the tax heaven of the USA.

Then there is an obvious dodge structure set up with Amway Netherlands Co-operative UA (Exclude liability). The co-operative tax structure is meant for agricultural co-operatives such as Campina or the Rabobank.

This legal form is more or less invisible for the Dutch tax authorities, an Exclude Liability company is not taxed, the participants are already taxed for the co-operative.

This tax structure is commonly used by foreign multinationals like Nike, Walmart and Pepsi, which are (hidden) co-operatives that own subsidiaries. Although the Dutch government has never undertaken action to close this tax leakage, it is still very common. Amway's cooperative in the Netherlands is owned by two companies headquartered in Delaware.

Does the Netherlands nothing gain with this tax construction? A little bit, there is a distribution branch named Access Business Group International, headquartered in Venlo – Netherlands with 77 co-workers. In addition, there are 59 co-workers in Budapest – Hungary.

Amway was co-founded by Rich DeVos, grandson of Dutch immigrants. The 90 old Rich DeVos stands with his family at number 88 on Forbes' billionaire list with $ 5.3 billion in estimated wealth.

Originally article can be found here: www.quotenet.nl/Nieuws/Zo-ontwijkt-familie-Betsy-DeVos-belasting-via-Nederland-191297

Get more information, facts and figures about Amway, click here for the Amway overview.

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