The aim of this paper was to investigate the extent of horizontal equity of Dutch corporate
income taxes. Seven company characteristics and five control variables were used to explain
Effective Tax Rates (ETRs) for a cross-sectional balanced panel of Dutch companies for the years
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1994 to 1998. The seven company characteristics include firm size, capital intensity, extent
of foreign operations, firm performance, leverage, being a public company and being a listed
company. The five control variables include net operating loss status, negative tax expense status,
interaction between net operating loss status and negative tax expense status, interaction between
net operating loss status and firm size and interaction between negative tax expense status and
firm size. Our empirical results confirm that the Dutch corporate income tax system provides
significant amounts of tax subsidies to companies, but that the tax system is also fairly neutral,
i.e. company ETRs can on average not be related to company characteristics. These findings are
supported by additional sensitivity analysis.