Project 1043 - an important Tax and Customs Administration-wide project that had a strong connection to the Combiteam Approach Facilitators (CAF)

Project 1043 was a significant, Tax and Customs Administration-wide project that had a strong relationship with the Combiteam Approach Facilitators (CAF), although they were two separate entities.

Below are the key findings regarding Project 1043:

1. Purpose and Focus of Project 1043

Project code 1043 was a Tax and Customs Administration project aimed at preventing systemic fraud in income tax (IH) returns. The system was designed to select high-risk and potentially risky returns based on risk selection.

Systemic fraud is defined as the deliberate submission of incorrect information in a tax return to receive more money or pay less tax. Project 1043 also focused on investigating tax advisors.

2. Relationship and Collaboration with the CAF team

Although Project 1043 and the CAF team were not organizationally the same, there was collaboration from the start of the CAF between the two entities.

The collaboration and division of tasks were as follows:

• Project 1043 focused on the handling of high-risk returns and potential systemic fraud in income tax.
• The CAF team on the other hand, focused on the involved facilitator (intermediary) with whose help or intervention these fraudulent returns had been created and/or submitted.
• Members of the CAF team also performed work for Project 1043.
• CAF investigations sometimes also led to investigations under the 1043 designation.
• The CAF included tax service providers from the tax consultant database and from project 1043 in their visits, often in the form of a pilot.
• In CAF files, a high level of cooperation between the CAF team and 'Project 1043' became apparent. For example, CAF file 26 received a signal from an old 'Project 1043' list regarding presumably incorrect income tax returns submitted by a facilitator.

In one specific file (CAF file 341), it appeared that a signal regarding two tax service providers, dating back to April 2013 (before the establishment of CAF), was later brought to the CAF team by Project 1043. This signal concerned presumably intentionally incorrect deductions for donations and/or other items in approximately half of the income tax returns investigated.

3. Status of Project 1043

The project code 1043 was used to record the time spent on the project by employees within internal registrations.

• Termination of Registration: From early 2018 the Tax and Customs Administration stopped registrations under this code, as it was found that the recording in practice no longer added any value to the fight against systemic fraud.
• Current Status: State Secretary Vijlbrief (now Minister Uitermark) has explained that the part of 1043 that protects citizens against errors has been reactivated. Further use of the remainder of code 1043 has been paused, pending the development of data protection options.

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