The cabinet discussed the spicy issue during the Council of Ministers last Friday, but did not reach an agreement among themselves. The issue is so sensitive because it is no small feat for the government to recognize that it has acted racist. According to insiders, State Secretary Van Rij (Tax Office) has been given homework. He should better find out what a racism confession would have for other government organizations or compensation.
But other ministries also believe that the problems at the tax authorities should simply be solved, and that a discussion about racism and discrimination should not be included. The subject will therefore be on the agenda again at the next meeting, due to Ascension this Wednesday.
The discussion is about the blacklists that the tax authorities have kept for years. Citizens and companies that were placed there could count on extra strict controls, but were also excluded from debt restructuring or student finance, for example, and as a result sometimes got into major financial problems.
The pain point is in the reasons people were put on the list. This was done on the basis of, for example, a person’s second nationality, but also ‘personal characteristics’: for example, young men of foreign origin with an expensive car. People who donated to a mosque were also blacklisted, according to research by PwC.
Van Rij did not want to go further than calling this state of affairs ‘discriminatory’, but did not want to speak of racism. He now thinks otherwise. The state secretary has been working on compensation for citizens who were on the blacklists for some time. According to insiders, there is a chance that extra claims for compensation will be made as a result of a racism confession.