Tax authorities must be more humane

Inspection: Tax authorities sometimes too strict with assessments
'Tax authorities must be more human'
Those who do not file a tax return can simply receive a levy of thousands of euros. In this way, well-meaning citizens get into unnecessary trouble, says the Tax Inspectorate. “If there is something to get, the government is a lot faster than when it has to give something.”
TOBIAS THE HARTOG, HANS VAN SOEST
The tax authorities impose an automatic assessment on people who do not respond to the invitation to file a report and who also ignore the reminder and reminder. In that attack, an estimate is made of someone's income and a penalty is added. It is often far too high, which means that people get into unnecessary problems. “The tax authorities are aware of the problem and are trying to determine the attack reasonably”, says Inspector General Bart Snels of the Tax, Surcharges and Customs Inspectorate. “But those estimates of someone's income still work out hard for some.”

Although the tax authorities are trying to prevent people from getting into unnecessary trouble, in practice, this is not going properly yet. “If, for example, a burnout or a death, you lose the overview for a while and don't open government letters, you can run into further and further problems unnecessarily.”

Early signaling
Through the so-called early signaling program, the tax authorities try to recognize in time that people are in trouble and help can be offered to prevent those problems from only getting worse. But that does not work well enough, the inspectorate notes. “If there is something to get, the government is a lot faster than when it has to give something.”

Snels gives an example of an error of judgment with huge consequences: the woman who started a store selling second-hand items wrongly thought that, as a starting entrepreneur, she did not have to file a VAT return.

After some time, she receives a letter from the tax authorities. The tax authorities themselves make an estimate and think they owe 10,000 euros in sales tax. While the turnover that year was only 3,000 euros. Attacks and fines are piling up. There is now an account of 100,000 euros open with the tax authorities and the woman had to sell her house. “This example is no exception,” says Snels. He believes that the tax authorities should be more human. c P6