<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>In 2018, Statistics Netherlands carried out a general benchmark revision of their national accounts statistics. The base year was 2015. Special attention was paid to the exhaustiveness of the estimates. Among other, these include estimates for illegal activities and tax evasion. In the first step, the main (illegal and off the record) activities that were not included in the regular data sources underlying the national accounts were identified. In the second step, estimates were made for each identified activity, based on the scarce information data sources available, supplemented with assumptions. This paper describes the second step. The value added of illegal activities in 2015 was estimated at 4.8 billion euros, which is 0.7% of gross domestic product (GDP). The explicit adjustment for tax evasion was about 3.9 billion euros, which is slightly &lt;0.6% of GDP.</p></abstract>

In 2018, Statistics Netherlands carried out a general benchmark revision of their national accounts statistics. The base year was 2015. Special attention was paid to the exhaustiveness of the estimates. Among other, these include estimates for illegal activities and tax evasion. In the first step, the main (illegal and off the record) activities that were not included in the regular data sources underlying the national accounts were identified. In the second step, estimates were made for each identified activity, based on the scarce information data sources available, supplemented with assumptions. This paper describes the second step. The value added of illegal activities in 2015 was estimated at 4.8 billion euros, which is 0.7% of gross domestic product (GDP). The explicit adjustment for tax evasion was about 3.9 billion euros, which is slightly <0.6% of GDP.

The unobserved economy and the Dutch national accounts after the benchmark revision 2015

Central European Economic Journal

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

In 2018, Statistics Netherlands carried out a general benchmark revision of their national accounts statistics. The base year was 2015. Special attention was...

The unobserved economy and the Dutch national accounts after the benchmark revision 2015

Published Online: Dec 23, 2019

Page range: 1 - 24

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/ceej-2019-0002

Keywords
national accounts, illegal activities, tax evasion, underground economy

© 2019 Brugt Kazemier et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

The unobserved economy and the Dutch national accounts after the benchmark revision 2015

Published Online: Dec 23, 2019

Page range: 1 - 24

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/ceej-2019-0002

Keywordsnational accounts, illegal activities, tax evasion, underground economy

© 2019 Brugt Kazemier et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Keywords
national accounts, illegal activities, tax evasion, underground economy