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Crime Doesn't Pay - Or Should It?

Crime Doesn't Pay - Or Should It? Crime Doesn't Pay -Or Should It? LEONARD BESSELlNK* On July 5, 1988 the European Court of Justice decided that the Nether- lands' Inland Revenue may no longer levy Value Added Tax on the sale of narcotic drugs!, The Inland Revenue's practice to levy VAT on the street trade in amphetamines, cannabis products, heroin, cocaine etcetera, to which the European Court put an end, may on the face of it be shocking to the onlooker. No doubt the practice provided further fuel for some foreign- ers' image of the Netherlands as a licentious drug paradise: even the government does not shun the profit that can be had from drugs. This image needs to be placed in its somewhat less colourful context. The sale of all narcotic drugs, from amphetamines and hashish to heroin and cocaine, is illegal in the Netherlands as elsewhere. Moreover , VAT and other taxes such as income and capital tax, have been levied on all activities. Thus the Netherlands' Supreme Court had previously decided that the income a burglar enjoys from stolen goods is subject to income tax 2 • So the State of the Netherlands has profited financially from all kinds of illegal activities, http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Grotiana Brill

Crime Doesn't Pay - Or Should It?

Grotiana , Volume 8 (1): 91 – Jan 1, 1987

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Publisher
Brill
Copyright
© 1987 Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands
ISSN
0167-3831
eISSN
1876-0759
DOI
10.1163/016738312X13397477911782
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Crime Doesn't Pay -Or Should It? LEONARD BESSELlNK* On July 5, 1988 the European Court of Justice decided that the Nether- lands' Inland Revenue may no longer levy Value Added Tax on the sale of narcotic drugs!, The Inland Revenue's practice to levy VAT on the street trade in amphetamines, cannabis products, heroin, cocaine etcetera, to which the European Court put an end, may on the face of it be shocking to the onlooker. No doubt the practice provided further fuel for some foreign- ers' image of the Netherlands as a licentious drug paradise: even the government does not shun the profit that can be had from drugs. This image needs to be placed in its somewhat less colourful context. The sale of all narcotic drugs, from amphetamines and hashish to heroin and cocaine, is illegal in the Netherlands as elsewhere. Moreover , VAT and other taxes such as income and capital tax, have been levied on all activities. Thus the Netherlands' Supreme Court had previously decided that the income a burglar enjoys from stolen goods is subject to income tax 2 • So the State of the Netherlands has profited financially from all kinds of illegal activities,

Journal

GrotianaBrill

Published: Jan 1, 1987

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