Some Good News!
This week our litigation team received the first decisions of the tax authorities on the letters of contest that were filed on behalf of the three participants in our litigation process. Decisions have been received for the months January and February. As expected the Dutch tax authorities rejected our letters of contest. However, the good news is that the legal team can now proceed to present our three cases to the tax court of Haarlem.
First battle won!
Extremely good news is the fact that the Dutch tax authorities have acknowledged that we are eligible to object and to present our cases to the tax court. As you may recall, the tax authorities initially argued that an employee would not be allowed to contest the application of the 30%-ruling. We are very happy that we (and the legal team) did not accept this point of view and started the legal process anyway. As a result the first battle is won by us!
Next step is that we have to present our three cases to the tax court in Haarlem. The legal team have 6 weeks to file letters of appeal to the tax court. They aim to prepare and file these letters as soon as possible. After receipt of the letters the court will ask the tax authorities for their opinion and after receipt of that response a court hearing will take place.
What can you expect from the tax authorities?
The legal team will contact the tax authorities to get a clear picture of how they will proceed with all other letters of contest. We expect that you will receive a letter (one for each month you sent a letter of objection) in which the tax authorities announce the rejection of your objection. In this letter they will provide an opportunity for you to respond and to ask for a hearing. We will make sure to provide timely guidance how to best respond to this letter.
We will update you on this as soon as we have more clarity and certainty from the tax authorities. In the meantime please continue to share (as you have been doing!) any correspondence that you receive from the tax authorities with the legal team by sending scanned copies to unitedexpats@taxperience.nl
Finally
As mentioned before, we have won an important first battle. However, this only relates to a formal aspect. Therefore it is not an indication that we will win this process. Any litigation process is long and requires patience and endurance. We encourage you to keep filing monthly letters of contest during the process. Let’s make sure we will win the next battles too! #StepByStep