Tax office wastes €200M on dead computer system

Despite knowing since 2009 that its new computerized tax collection system EPTM was rife with glitches, it took the tax office until earlier this year to halt its development. NRC Handelsblad reports today that internal documents from the department that the program had meanwhile cost the state € 203 to build. The computer system that would serve for collection and paying out all tax premiums, advances and compensations was the fourth largest IT project the state carried out in the past ten years. NRC writes that from when the project started in 2005 there had been concerns about its technical feasibility. EPTM is in use today, but according to NRC sources, for only one percent of all the tax department's transactions.