News item | 04-11-2022 | 15:20
People who have actually suffered damage as a result of registration in the Fraud Signaling Facility (FSV) are entitled to compensation. This includes people who have missed out on debt counseling due to registration in the FSV or where there is a risk that tax characteristics have not been selected in the tax return. The mere fact that someone was in FSV does not lead to a compensation. The cabinet has decided this today on the intercession of State Secretary Marnix van Rij (Fiscality and Tax Administration), partly after a debate about the contours of the policy with the House of Representatives.
State Secretary Van Rij: “Citizens and entrepreneurs must be able to rely on the correct selection of reporting and handling of fraud signals. It is painful that this has not gone well everywhere around FSV in the past. We must learn from this, improve the fraud approach and provide redress where necessary. We now do the latter by compensating people who have actually suffered damage from FSV. After all the studies and hard conclusions, we can now look ahead again.”
Accommodating groups
The government distinguishes between different groups in its compensation policy:
- People for whom there is a risk that the tax return process for healthcare costs and donations has not been selected on the basis of tax characteristics. If the Tax and Customs Administration has taken action, in the form of making a correction to the tax return of the relevant taxpayer, this will be reversed. After all, the declaration should not have been selected for verification. This probably applies to approximately 5,000 declarations. The restoration will take place in 2023 and 2024, 10 to 20 million euros have been reserved for it.
- People for whom special or criminal data has been registered in the FSV, people whose data from the FSV has been provided to third parties and people who have been subject to intensive supervision for too long. Within these three groups there must be a direct link between the registration and an actual consequence of the registration in order to be eligible for compensation. € 375 is paid out for each group where a citizen has suffered damage. It concerns a maximum of 18,000 people, recovery will take place in 2023 and approximately 7 million euros have been reserved for it.
- People who have been wrongly rejected by an FSV registration for admission to the Amicable Debt Restructuring Natural Persons (MSNP) and Statutory Debt Rescheduling Natural Persons (WSNP) programme. If these people were first rejected for MSNP, but later admitted, they will receive €500 for every six months that they are admitted too late. If they are first rejected for MSNP and later admitted to WSNP, they will also receive this amount and a one-off € 500. For people who have ended up in a recovery process or bankruptcy, a personal approach is taken to make these people debt free. All these groups involve approximately 4,400 people for whom 115 million euros has been reserved.
- People who have not experienced an actual effect. It has been established for a large group of registered persons that registration in the FSV had no adverse effect. For approximately 220,000 of the 270,000 citizens and entrepreneurs, the treatment was regular. This group is informed that there is no material adverse effect on them. The government wants to apologize to them again, but proposes not to make any concessions. The Tax and Customs Administration cannot yet determine whether the registration in FSV has had an effect on approximately 33,000 people. The aim is to have clarity for this group in the course of 2023.
Keep people informed
In addition to offering compensation, the cabinet is committed to permanently clear information and communication with people who were listed in FSV. In addition to completing the Marijnissen I and II motions – informing people about (the reason for) their FSV registration – people are therefore informed by letter about the further processing of their registration.
In addition, it remains important that the FSV-registered persons continue to have the opportunity to stay in touch with the tax authorities. That is why a special hotline for questions has been set up at the Tax and Customs Administration. In addition, a portal has been set up to inform affected citizens and to get in touch with them. The portal contains both general information and a personal page. Citizens can also chat with employees of the Tax and Customs Administration.