New cabinet can do more with taxes, ‘tax authorities’ computers will soon be able to handle it’

• Jorn Jonker

  political reporter

• Roel Bolsius

  reporter The Hague

A new cabinet can significantly change the tax system. After years of being forced to say ‘no’ to politicians, the message from the Tax Authorities to the forming parties is now more positive: the computer systems can handle quite a lot of changes from 2027. Insiders told NOS.

This means that the negotiating parties already have more freedom of action to devise new plans and prepare laws. For example, in previous formations, political parties were told that something relatively small such as a VAT rate could not even be changed when politicians wanted it to be. The outdated computer systems would not be able to handle it.

If a new cabinet serves its full term, the year 2027 will fall into the new government period. The tax authorities are confident that the computers will really be ready by then. Until then, people are mainly concerned with renewing ICT.

There is still one threat in the air: the Supreme Court has yet to make rulings on box 3, the capital gains tax. These are expected in August and September. If these statements show that taxes have been wrongly levied in that area, a lot of money may have to be repaid. Within the ministry, a cost item of no less than 4 billion euros is taken into account.

In that case, the computer systems must also be adapted to how tax on capital may be levied. This must be done by the programmers who have to work on the much-needed renewal of the computer systems.

Will there be a delay in that case? No, probably not, is the message to the formation, according to those involved. Even in the worst case, politicians can introduce new plans in 2027, they expect at the Tax Authorities. Tax returns for the 2027 tax year must be filed in 2028; Only then do the computers have to be ready for it. So there is a little leeway to be able to fulfill the promise to politicians even in the event of a setback.

The Tax Authorities do ask something of the formation: take it easy with new tax plans until 2027. In some areas, such as inheritance and gift tax, the systems are already reasonably up to date and changes can be implemented more easily. But beyond that, the tax authorities mainly need time and space to get the new computer systems ready on time, officials tell the forming parties.

And that renewal is quite a job: the old systems, which are sometimes still based on software programs from decades ago, must now continue to run while a completely new system is built. In the meantime, all political plans must be implemented in both systems and the Tax Authorities also have a big job to implement privacy legislation such as the GDPR in these outdated systems.

The Director General of the Tax Authorities joined the formation at the end of March to explain that more and more is possible, but not everything at once. Through contacts with officials, further details of the implementation were discussed with the formation table, those involved know.