Jaap Uijlenbroek. © Ministry of Finance

Director General of the Tax Administration expelled over benefits affair

UpdateJaap Uijlenbroek, Director General of the Tax Administration, has been called on duty. The aftermath of the benefits affair is the reason he has to leave within a few weeks, sources from The Hague confirm to this site.

Internal Editors 10-01-20, 19:18 Last updated: 10-01-20, 20:42

Uijlenbroek reportedly does not agree with the different scenarios that are on the table to make the service function better.

At the end of November, officials of the tax authorities already called for measures against managers responsible for the benefits affair. In addition, childcare surcharges were unlawfully stopped. Employees believe that those involved should be disciplined. Some insisted on calling in the National Investigation Service, according to angry reactions from employees on the Beeldkrant, the tax service's intranet. Tax office officials there spoke about the benefits affair and insisted that “responsibility” would still be taken. This is because they found the reactions of the top of the tax authorities and Secretary of State Snel (Finance) far too weak. Do you want to receive AD's Daily News Update newsletter by email every day? E-mail State Secretary Menno Snel (Finance) resigned on December 18 due to the benefits affair. He came to the conclusion that his position had become unsustainable. The entire opposition no longer liked him and there were also doubts within the coalition parties whether Snel was still the man to solve the problems with the tax authorities. The affair involves hundreds, but probably thousands, of parents who were wrongly classified by the tax authorities as fraudsters, forcing them to repay up to tens of thousands of euros in childcare allowance. They were wrongly put them in big trouble by injunctions and wage garnishments.Black lacquered filesAlthough Snel promised improvement and made an arrangement to compensate the affected parents, a week before his departure, it turned out that officials at the tax authorities were still working too much by the rules and taking too little account of 'the human dimension'. When parents requested their files to find out why they were ever classified as fraudsters, many pages turned out to be black lacquered. Although there were reasons for this (third-party data must be blackened by law), parents should at least have been explained why that was the case, according to Snel.Ignore Legislation, Nel was responsible for the tax authorities as Secretary of State. In 2014, he decided to completely stop and recover the childcare allowance for around 300 parents - the counts vary. The reason for this was an investigation by an anti-fraud team named CAF 11. When audited by the Eindhoven childcare agency Dadim, the team encountered “irregularities”. For example, it turned out that parents had provided incomplete or incorrect information when they applied for the allowance. Sometimes it was a wrong number or a missing receipt. Nevertheless, the tax authorities intervened very hard. The tax authorities have been complying with the law when checking surcharges since 2016. This was stated by the Secretary of State in the House of Representatives and promised the tax authorities to the National Ombudsman. Nevertheless, the service ignored the law, in mid-December, internal reports from the management team of the Directorate of Benefits of the Tax Administration over the past two years showed. CompensationAround 300 parents affected by the child allowance affair heard from the tax authorities a week before Christmas how much compensation they would still receive in 2019. This was a provisional amount, based on the information that was available at the time. The amounts were transferred before Christmas. In more than two hundred cases, this involves amounts of up to 20,000 euros, while more than seventy is higher. The highest benefit is 66,000 euros. A final assessment will follow early this year.