Tax Amnesty Declarations In Netherlands Boom

by Ulrika Lomas, Tax-News.com, Brussels

31 March 2009

The Dutch Ministry of Finance has announced that the use of its voluntary own-up scheme has considerably increased over the past six weeks. During the period, 121 taxpayers reported money that had been hidden from the Dutch tax authorities.

The 121 taxpayers will now have to pay almost EUR24m in additional tax assessments and interest. The highest individual tax assessment amounted to EUR3.9m. In the case of three others, more than EUR1m was collected. Of those 121 taxpayers, 43 declared bank accounts in Switzerland, closely followed by 27 in Belgium, and with Luxemburg in third place with 18.

More than 5,000 taxpayers have come forward since the beginning of the scheme in 2001, providing the tax authority EUR181m. The Dutch Finance Ministry’s release noted that until now, an average of two taxpayers report offshore accounts every day – a figure which has recently increased to over twenty a day. The Tax and Customs Administration believes that the dramatic increase in disclosures has been spurred by commitments made by several jurisdictions, particularly Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg and Andorra, to loosen their banking secrecy regimes.

The voluntary own-up scheme allows taxpayers to come forward and pay any unpaid taxes, avoiding criminal prosecution and high fines. The Tax and Customs Administration believes there are still several thousand accounts which remain undeclared.

State Secretary De Jager expects that the scheme will become increasingly popular over the coming period: "Most Dutch pay their taxes as they should. Taxpayers who have hidden their money in foreign bank accounts have to come clean and report their bank balances. Those who do not run the risk that at a certain moment the Tax and Customs Administration or the Fiscal Intelligence and Investigation Service and Economic Investigation Service (FIOD-ECD) will turn up at their doorstep. We are currently obtaining more and more information on those Dutch who try to keep their money hidden from the tax authorities by using foreign bank accounts."

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