The court is remarkably fierce in the judgment and wonders, among other things, whether “the judge can still believe the tax authorities”. That reports the NOS. The case revolves around a private limited company owned by a couple with several other private limited companies under management. After an employee of one of those BVs was checked because of possible fraud with the benefits of a child, an inspector from the tax office in Emmen decided to also subject the owners of the BV to an inspection.
According to the entrepreneur and his wife, the Tax and Customs Administration assumed without substantive assessment that they were not acting in good faith in private, after which they accused them of gross fraud and an investigation followed. This led to higher tax assessments, additional assessments and settlements.
Black list
It also turned out that one of the shareholders, unknowingly, had been included in the controversial Fraud Signaling Facility, a kind of blacklist of the Tax Authorities, on which people were listed as possible fraudsters.
Last year, the Dutch Data Protection Authority ruled that the Tax and Customs Administration had seriously violated the core principles of the GDPR privacy law with that list. According to the court, it is plausible that the entry on that list had a major influence on the way in which the company was treated by the tax authorities.
Four hundred blue envelopes
The entrepreneur and his wife who presented the case to the court have been pursued by the tax authorities for years. During that period, about four hundred blue envelopes ended up on the doormat and more than a hundred objections were submitted by the couple.
“The physical and psychological stress of hundreds of blue envelopes and the misunderstanding of what happened to them took and continues to take their toll,” they said at the hearing. One of them is with burnout symptoms under medical treatment.
Inspector: ‘Not acted carelessly’
The tax inspector told the court that he “understands that the control was experienced as strict”. The person who carried out the check was known by the Tax Authorities for his strict approach, according to the inspector of the Emmen office. This person no longer works as a controller. Nevertheless, the inspector maintains that “the tax authorities did not act negligently”.
The Council judges that the appeal of the couple against the tax authorities is well-founded and determines that the inspector must pay 25,000 euros as a contribution to the legal costs and must reimburse the court fee paid. The inspector also promised that outstanding additional assessments and payroll taxes will be destroyed.
Several MPs, including Renske Leijten (SP) and Pieter Omtzigt (independent member), have asked the State Secretary of Finance questions about the ruling.