Tax Authority also overzealous in income tax fraud hunt

The Tax Authority was also too quick to label people as fraudsters when it came to income tax, according to an old work instruction that State Secretary Hans Vijlbrief of Finance informed parliament of on Wednesday. In a now-abolished fraud detection system called FSV, people could be blacklisted at the slightest suspicion of fraud, without them even knowing about it, NU.nl reports.

The work instruction stated that people on the FSV list were assumed to be "not in good faith", even "without substantive review". This meant that if they had a tax- or benefit debt of 10 thousand euros or more, they could not qualify for a payment arrangement, according to the newspaper.

Vijlbrief told parliament that this work instruction was used until March 2020, and he is trying to find out how many people were affected by it. He called the course of events "unacceptable".

At the end of November, a memo also surfaced in which Tax Authority officials proposed that people with an allowance debt of 3 thousand euros or more be automatically labeled as "intentional/gross debt". That would also mean that they couldn't qualify for a payment arrangement or debt counseling. It is still being investigated whether and on what scale this proposal was put into practice.

Vijlbrief said that everyone who had an FSV registration will be informed about it as soon as possible.