René Maat
Tax Advisor / Partner
I have more than twenty years of experience in the area of providing tax advice relating to property, with emphasis on the acquisition and sale of property (portfolios), (re)structuring, litigation and audits.
Practice
My clients are both Dutch and foreign, and include property investors, fund and asset managers, project developers, contractors and government organisations.
Recent projects on which I have worked include:
- Assisting in the acquisition and sale of property companies (including the acquisition of property through limited partnerships), via tendering or other procedures;
- Drafting and negotiating the tax provisions for agreements, such as lease and purchase agreements and settlement agreements;
- Conducting preliminary consultation, formulating and completing negotiations for arrangements with the Tax Authorities;
- Providing advice in the areas of income tax (for example: whether a certain property investment should be reported in Box I or Box III), corporate income tax (for instance: whether and to what extent interest on shareholder loans is deductible and whether writing down these loans is tax-deductible), and VAT and transfer tax (regarding questions such as whether an object is new for VAT purposes and whether the case involves one or multiple items for VAT purposes);
- Providing advice on the optimum collaboration structure (VAT, transfer tax, corporate income tax) for project development that is also suitable for the investment phase;
- Assisting in audits for the purposes of personal income tax, corporate income tax, VAT and/or transfer tax;
- Assisting in legal proceedings with financial and/or tax-related aspects;
- Conducting tax objection and appeal proceedings.
When needed, I work closely together with my legal and tax colleagues and with external civil-law notaries.
Background
I studied Tax Law at Tilburg University. I also completed the post-major Indirect Taxes programme at Erasmus University Rotterdam. Before joining RechtStaete in 2002, I worked for Deloitte and Arthur Andersen.
Languages
Dutch, German and English
Publications
René Maat produces publications on tax-related matters involving property tax. Amongst other things, he is the co-author of the Kluwer tax guide entitled Bouw en Fiscus. In addition, he produces a regular column for the magazine, Vastgoedpersonality.