The country's wisdom, the country's honour. Early Friday morning, on the first day that the Netherlands was allowed to file tax returns for tax year 2023, the Tax Authorities reported that around 100,000 people had already completed their tax returns. The first report came in 3.5 minutes after midnight. In the early hours of March 1, the tax authorities' website was already so busy that it regularly became overloaded. You would think that tax morale in the Netherlands would be fine.
The first problems did not last long. On platform X, users reported that the site was down at eight minutes past twelve. Employees of the Tax Authorities, also present en masse on social media to ensure everything runs smoothly, responded casualas is commonplace on social media: “Oh no! Too bad it doesn't work right away. There is a limit to the number of people who can log in at the same time for the declaration, which is why you will see this message. Hopefully it will work out later today! ^TA.”
Some enthusiasts announced triumphantly during the night that they had finished and received a refund. A certain Miquel at 1:48 am Friday morning on X: “Thx brothers! I'm going to make holiday plans.” The service also responded to this: “Hello Miquel, good to read that we managed to file the report. Always nice to get money back.” Immediately followed by a message that reads like a disclaimer: “This is a preliminary calculation based on the data you entered. We still have to check your tax return, so no rights can be derived from this amount. This is an indication that you will probably get money back. You will receive a message from us before July 1. I wish you a nice weekend. ^DS”
Silent mega-operation
It's that time of year again. While the crocuses are emerging, the tax return season has also started again. About 9.2 million people received a message from the tax authorities and must file a tax return before May 1: 7.3 million private individuals and 1.9 million entrepreneurs. In practice, even more people will file a tax return: not everyone will automatically receive a message from the Tax Authorities, for example because they have only just become liable for tax. Anyone who files a tax return before April 1 will receive the final assessment before July 1. Guaranteed.
Some people can't make it to the deadline. They can request a postponement of a maximum of six months (this is allowed and is always honored). Then everything must be handed in no later than September 1. Practice shows that these are mainly people who have their tax returns completed by a tax advisor. In this way, the period in which customers can be helped (and therefore money can be earned) can be extended from the two formal tax return months to six months. Last year, 2.9 million people requested a deferral, 2.7 million of whom via their tax advisor.
Silently
It is a mega operation that runs so smoothly every year that it can actually be called a miracle, especially for the tax authorities, which are plagued by a chronic staff shortage and automation problems. But apart from long waiting times at the tax telephone and an occasional overload of the site, things have been going well for years. About four-fifths of people file tax returns themselves via the Tax Authorities' website, 6 percent use the app, 14 percent file tax returns through an advisor and less than 1 percent still file tax returns on paper.
The speed with which the first declaration was received this year is remarkable, but explainable. You hardly need to do your own research for a standard tax return. Where annual statements, bank statements and mortgage papers used to swirl around the desperate taxpayer, most of the data has now already been pre-filled by the tax authorities.
In total, this concerns more than 200 million data provided by mainly municipalities, employers, banks and insurers. The bulk (58.5 million) concerns so-called non-financial data such as name, address and citizen service number. But also data on incomes (35.7 million), bank balances and dividends (47 million), bank and mortgage debts (over 10 million), WOZ values of houses (5.8 million) and any foreign bank balances and pensions ( 2.1 million) are neatly completed and ready. Be sure to check carefully, of course, something may have gone wrong when collecting or processing data.
The mountain of data that the tax authorities already have available continues to increase every year. Since last year, platforms on which private individuals trade second-hand items have also been obliged to provide data to the tax authorities. For the current declaration, websites such as Marktplaats and Vinted (second-hand clothing) only do this for new customers who registered in 2023. From tax year 2024, the transfer obligation applies to all users of such platforms. The platforms will provide the data to the tax authorities for users who make more than thirty transactions in a year or who have converted more than 2,000 euros. By the way, he doesn't do anything with it yet. The number of transactions and even the amount of turnover says nothing about its character: is it business or private. This requires more research and for the time being this data is not yet filled in in advance. From now on, taxpayers must also report that income themselves.
Pay attention to donations and deductibles
Despite the increasingly omniscient Tax Authorities, taxpayers themselves must continue to pay close attention. For example, deductions and donations are not yet entered automatically, even though there is a lot to be achieved there. Consider certain healthcare costs, travel costs not reimbursed by the employer or costs for studies. Or donations that – provided they are made to a Public Benefit Organization – are partly deductible. All in all, this can yield quite a bit of benefit.
In fact, it applies to everything: the more a declaration deviates from the standard, the more you have to complete yourself. Is someone divorced or moving in together? Has someone lost their job, with or without severance pay? Then extra caution is required. It is precisely these types of deviations from the normal pattern that are not always well received by the tax authorities.
The biggest change in this year's tax return will only become clear at the very end of the completion exercise: the traditional division between tax partners of the amount to be paid or received. Where until last year tax partners had to adjust deductions and costs themselves to arrive at the lowest possible tax return (a relatively inscrutable process of endlessly trying different amounts), this year this has been automated and optimized. The distribution therefore leads to the most favorable outcome for taxpayers.
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