200 tax advisors also labeled as fraudsters: unjustified, according to Achmed, who is now homeless and unemployed
200 tax advisors also labeled as fraudsters: unjustified, according to Achmed, who is now homeless and unemployed
- 29-10-2021 07:00
- Last modified: 29-10-2021 08:02
- Money and work
- Author: Marco de Vries, Jelle Reijman
Around two hundred tax advisors have been tackled in recent years by the same fraud team that is also responsible for investigating the benefits affair. One of them is Achmed Abdi, who is aware of no harm but has lost everything.
Due to the civil war in his home country of Somalia, Achmed fled to the Netherlands in 1986, like tens of thousands of others. At the age of 19, he had to start from scratch.
Working as an interpreter
Achmed didn't want to sit at home, he found a job at McDonald's fast food chain. He also went to school to learn Dutch. He proved to be a fast learner and not long after that he was able to work as an interpreter for the Immigration and Naturalization Service (IND) and other government services.
“I worked double shifts. In the morning, I drove to work at 4 a.m. and interpreted at azc's and courts across the country.”
Help with tax returns
From his downstairs apartment in the Schilderswijk in The Hague, he also worked for other Somalis who fled to the Netherlands. For example, he raised money for reconstruction projects in Somalia.
With his language skills, he also helped newcomers find their way around the agencies and organizations they faced, from dental appointments to phone subscriptions. And as a tax advisor, he filled out returns for Somali Dutch people who had difficulty doing so themselves.
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Arrested
But things went wrong in February 2014. Two tax authorities rang the bell and told Abdi that his house and savings account would be seized. Overwhelmed, he referred to his accountant, who had been filing his returns for 20 years. He was not behind and had no debts, the accountant also said.
In 2015, Abdi was subsequently arrested. As a tax advisor, he would have filed wrong returns for others and asked for at least 140,000 euros too much in health care costs, charitable donations and maintenance costs for family members and children from abroad.
Beg for food from friends
And Abdi was not the only one to whom this happened, according to an investigation by One Today in cooperation with the Green Amsterdammer. Around two hundred tax advisors have been tackled in recent years by the same fraud team that is also responsible for investigating the benefits affair, the Combiteam Approach Facilitators (CAF).
Abdi's case has not been investigated yet, but his account has been seized, so he can no longer access his money. So it wasn't possible to pay for a lawyer either. “I couldn't pay anymore, I had to beg from friends to eat.”
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Combiteam Approach Facilitators (CAF)
The Combiteam Approach Facilitators, better known as the CAF, was founded after the stir about the Bulgarian fraud, just under 10 years ago. The team was intended to address key figures in alleged fraud cases, such as childminding agencies, but also tax advisors, for example. The team was allowed to “push the boundaries” and take action as quickly as possible in case of signs of fraud. The CAF search engines registered “anomalous patterns” in millions of returns. In doing so, they also scanned for “different nationality”, as research by Amnesty International.
“Taxpayers”
There was often a simple explanation for the above average number of deductions in Abdi's returns. His clients were refugees who have just arrived, hence the posts for family members who have arrived. Many other tax advisors addressed by the CAF have already retired. They only keep their regular customers, who are often also older and have more healthcare costs.
The CAF, it turns out, did not investigate advisors with an above average income or business tax advisors, but limited itself to what the team described as “tax men”, who help people at the lower end of the labor market with their returns for nothing or a few tens. The high healthcare costs of older clients and thus high deductions were a reason for the CAF to take these people out.
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Clients in trouble
Abdi's clients also got into trouble when he came on the CAF's radar. They had to repay thousands of euros. Muusa Doualeh, for example, worked as a healthcare worker in a hospital. He made use of deductions abroad for his wife, something that is allowed by law. Abdi lodged an objection to the recovery on his behalf and sent the receipts for the deducted costs. They were rejected.
Doualeh had to repay 8,000 euros, which proved very difficult with a minimum wage and ongoing costs for his wife. “I had to sell my car,” says Doualeh, now retired. “I cycled 20 kilometers to work every day through hell and high water to save money.”
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Watch the television report here.
The 'fraudster' stamp
Just like in the benefits affair, “taxmen” and their clients were stamped “fraudster” by the computer in advance and were treated as suspects by the tax authorities: tax office employees were shown a different script when they had someone with fraud code 1043 on the line.
The evidence and receipts of these people subsequently went missing in several cases or were rejected for unknown reasons.
Just an apology letter
While the tax authorities have been trying to compensate the victims in the benefits affair since the beginning of this year, this does not apply to the possible abuses against the “taxpayers” and their clients. Criminal cases and claims against the 'rogue' tax advisors are now continuing.
According to their written response to our investigation, the tax authorities still regard them as fraudsters. Abdi is now homeless, unemployed and has no money back yet.
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