‘I too am a victim of the unfair course of events with regard to the tax assessment on interest. In 2015 I paid no less than 1,921 euros in taxes on my interest income of 334 euros,” writes a reader. “Is there any chance I’ll see some of that?”
Marnix van Rij, former CDA chairman and accountant at Ernst & Young, could well become the first minister of Rutte IV who ends up on the kick chair. He is the State Secretary for Taxation and the Tax Authorities – the cemetery of the Rutte cabinets, where all the tombstones of Menno Snel, Eric Wiebes and Frans Weekers can be found. He is troubled now that the Dutch government has sinned against the European Convention on Human Rights, which sounds as if taxpayers in this country have been treated as political prisoners in a tax gulag.
The Supreme Court has ruled that the tax assessment in box 3 of the tax return, the capital gains tax or the savings tax, is contrary to the right to property and the prohibition of discrimination. The reason is that the charged fictitious return of 4 percent was much higher than the actual savings rate of zero or almost zero. Anyone who has lodged an objection – approximately one hundred thousand Dutch people – is therefore entitled to a refund for the years from 2017.
Two weeks after taking office, Van Rij finds himself in a wasp’s nest, from which there is no way out without being stung from all sides. First, it is nearly impossible not to compensate the people who have not filed an appeal: nearly one million taxpayers. Otherwise, he would immediately sin against another prohibition of discrimination, the one between the troublemakers who don’t let themselves be walked over and the well-off who accept that taxes are not always fair. In the future, it would force taxpayers to add a phrase to each assessment: ‘I object to my final assessment on the basis of possible future court decisions, which may indicate that this assessment is unlawful. I will explain my objection in more detail in due course.’
There is also the question of whether the victims who did not achieve the notional return of 4 percent for 2017 may be excluded, although the Supreme Court allows this. And then there is a politically sensitive issue. If everyone is compensated, this will cost the state five billion euros a year: since 2017 that has been 25 billion, and if compensated even further back, 35 to 50 billion euros. That leaves an unprecedented hole in the budget. All this money goes to the better off, the wealthy people. Some of them – the slum landlords and shareholders – have indeed achieved a return of 4 percent or much more. They would then have to pay even more afterwards, if it is even possible for the overburdened tax authorities to recalculate the actual return.
Reason enough to be mortally wounded in the cemetery of Rutte with ‘Box 3’ as the epitaph.