Peter Gillis has to pay 1.5 million euros in tourist tax because of the many years of stay of labor migrants at his holiday park in Ommel. The judge determined that on Thursday. Gillis did not agree with the attacks that the tax authorities imposed on him and went to court. The tax authorities have now inferior it.
It concerns tax in eight years, from 2014 to 2021. Gillis believes that he should not pay for this, but, for example, the employment agencies that rented the accommodations at the holiday park.
The judge does not agree. He judges that Peter Gillis is rightly regarded as a taxpayer. According to the court, the tax official came up with a concrete substantiation and Gillis in turn did not come up with evidence. He only referred to a questionnaire he has completed on his tax liability.
Bad arguments
According to Gillis, the amount of the assessments cannot be checked for him, but the judge does not agree with that either. The attacks are based on data that comes from its own administration. The judge explained extensively how the amount was established on the basis of that data.
In addition, Gillis has already been convicted of several tax offenses. This shows that there was no structural registering of overnight stays or the destruction of proof thereof at the holiday park in Ommel. The actual number of overnight stays has probably been much higher than Gillis’ administration shows. The judge therefore thinks that the attacks were set too low rather than too high.
Unclear whether payment has already been made
That means that Peter Gillis has to pay the attacks for the years 2014 up to and including 2021. In total an amount of more than 1.5 million euros. It is unclear whether he has already paid those taxes and will not get back, or whether he has to pay retroactively.