On 28 June 2017, the State Secretary for Finance informed the lower house of the parliament on developments concerning the amended innovation box regime. In the Tax Plan 2017 (amended by Eerste Nota van Wijziging), the State Secretary for Finance submitted amendments to the existing innovation box regime. The amendments introducing the “modified nexus approach” were made within the OECD BEPS project.
Since then, the new innovation box regime has been evaluated and approved by the European Code of Conduct Group which concluded that the new regime does not constitute harmful tax competition.
Following the approval, the list of qualifying assets, i.e. “entry tickets”, has been expanded to include plant breeders’ rights. This measure will enter into force on 1 July 2017 and have retroactive effect to 1 January 2017.