Former State Secretary for Social Affairs and Employment Robin Linschoten (VVD) was also sentenced on appeal to a hundred hours of community service for tax fraud. The Supreme Court has Tuesday decided, in line with what the Solicitor General advised in May. Linschoten previously successfully contested the five-month prison sentence imposed on him in 2017, but now has to work unpaid.
Linschoten, now 65, was suspected of deliberately submitting several incorrect turnover tax returns in the period between 2010 and 2012. As a result, he paid more than 100,000 euros too little to the tax authorities. In 2017, the court therefore sentenced him to five months in prison. Linschoten subsequently succeeded in obtaining a reduced sentence on appeal, because he convinced the court that he had not committed fraud intentionally.
According to Linschoten’s defense, the fault of the incorrect VAT returns lies with his accountant. “My only mistake is that I haven’t checked my bookkeeper enough. As if I’m going to withhold VAT on purpose,” he said five years ago against it Financial Newspaper† At the time, the former politician did not submit documents or submitted documents too late to his accounting office, which therefore estimated his turnover. “Incredibly sloppy and lax,” he classified his own behavior.
In 1982 Linschoten was elected as a member of parliament for the VVD at the age of 25, making him the youngest member of parliament. In 1994 he became State Secretary for Social Affairs and Employment in the first Kok cabinet. Two years later, Linschoten resigned because he had not fully informed the House of Representatives about problems at the Social Insurance Supervisory Board (Ctsv).