Tax authorities misled the judge several times and unfairly withheld documents - fundamental right to a complete file violated
Tax authorities mislead judges by not providing a complete file
Journalist Jan Hein Strop writes the following on Linkedin:
The Tax authorities lied.
Not against one judge: against the court, the Court of Justice and the Supreme Court. And calls it “unfortunate circumstances” afterwards. What's really going on: inspectors decide what judges can see. Documents that tax the tax authorities are withheld. Citizens thus lose lawsuits based on incomplete information, while they are entitled to their entire file. This problem has been going on for years. But successive administrators call them “incidents.” In one case, the hidden documents came to light because the tax authorities accidentally sent a PowerPoint. In another case, the truth only came out via a request under the Open Government Act, which the tax authorities tried to train. 'I've seen people break down, 'says lawyer Mark Hendriks.
The tax authorities can make your life quite miserable. If the service believes you have done something wrong, an investigation will follow that can lead to fines, additional taxes and sometimes even prosecution, according to Jan Hein Strop and published on May 16, 2026 in sFollow the Money NL.
Complete file is missing; incriminating documents are not included; judges believe the tax authorities - with catastrophic consequences
Legal protection ensures a fair trial: you must be able to defend yourself in court. Legally, you have access to your complete file, i.e. all documents that are important in imposing the fines and charges. Otherwise, there is no fair trial.
lawyer Mark Hendriks states: “It is always a tug of war to get the pieces out. They are withheld because they are burdensome for the tax authorities. ' In 2024, it concluded Arnhem-Leeuwarden Court that the inspector has dealt with the truth very lightly several times. Guido de Bont, lawyer and professor of formal tax law confirms that the Tax authorities confirms the strategic withholding of documents. The inspector denies this and the judge believes it. lawyer Marloes Lammers says he has been running into this problem for years. “You have to take a long breath.” In one of her cases, she accidentally found out that there were thousands of documents about an international investigation that the service had wrongly kept secret.
In the dog breeder case, the inspector also lied to the court.
In a recent case involving an entrepreneur, the inspector lied to the court, the court and the Supreme Court that he did not have the requested documents. This came to light when the entrepreneur requested documents under the Open Government Act (Woo).
“The Supreme Court of the Netherlands regards this state of affairs as an extremely careless act on the part of the Inspector — which is attributable to the Secretary of State,” she ruled in April 2026.
Suspected entrepreneur
The case concerns a dog breeder from Hapert, Brabant, who was suspected of fraud. He came into the picture through a so-called Information and Expertise Center (RIEC), in which, among others, local governments, the tax authorities, the FIOD, the police and the Public Prosecutor's Office work together. These parties exchange signals and data about possible suspects to combat “undermining crime”.
Entrepreneurs are described as criminal and undermining and are then dealt with harshly.
Being a target of the RIEC is not what you get to hear. Based on “signals”, institutions or citizens are labeled “criminal” and “subversive” and then dealt with harshly. Transparency about this method and the choices made is missing. Municipalities and the police are cooperating.
Control is hardly possible, especially when parties involved such as the tax authorities keep documents secret at all costs.
“These are not incidents. It's a pattern. '
This is what Paula Bouwer of the Foundation for the Recovery of Unprecedented Injustice states. Entrepreneurs are “targeted” by RIEC investigations, which led to their bankruptcy. They have been wrongly suspected and monitored for years, spied on, experienced FIOD raids, and their administrations are being confiscated or removed from their systems.
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