The Dutch Tax Plan for 2013 contains several tax collection measures.
We have summarized the most important details for you below so you can prepare for your tax situation. If you have any questions regarding your tax matters, please do not hesitate to contact our office.
1. Penalty for late filing
Currently, a penalty for late filing can only be imposed when a tax assessment is issued. For taxpayers who repeatedly file late (corporate) income tax returns, it will become possible to issue a penalty before the assessment is issued. The tax inspector can, however, notify the taxpayer that the penalty will be mitigated if a return is filed before a specified date.
2. Interest
The interest paid on refunds (heffingsrente) will be replaced by a tax interest (belastingrente). The tax collection interest (invorderingsrente), i.e. the interest charged on tax due to the tax authorities will remain. However, the interest, currently calculated from January 1st following the tax year, will in all cases be calculated from the July 1st following the tax year.
The interest will become equal to the legal interest (wettelijke rente) due on non-commercial transactions carried out by individual consumers (currently around 3%).
With respect to tax assessments relating to periods ending before 1 January 2012, the old system will apply until 1 January 2013. For the third quarter of 2012, the tax collection interest and the interest on tax refunds is 2.5%.
3. Payment settlement
Entrepreneurs will be able to obtain a tax deferral for a maximum of 4 months with respect to tax claims up to approximately EUR 12,000.
4. Right to seizure
Under Dutch tax law, a tax inspector has a preferential right to seize goods if taxpayers remain seriously delinquent in their payment of tax. To guarantee that the tax inspector can exercise this right, pledgees and third owners, such as buyers under a hire purchase contact and financial lessors, will be obliged to inform the tax authorities when they intend to exercise their rights.
In that case, the tax inspector has 4 weeks to take the necessary measures to preserve this right.
5. Data of third persons.
In certain cases a taxpayer will be obliged to indicate a tax number (citizen service number) of a third person in his tax return, e.g. in the case of alimony payments, the tax number of the recipient must be mentioned
Source: IBFD