Preparing for Legal Efforts, Part 12

Below we try to summarize key questions that are currently coming in, and also highlight a VERY IMPORTANT Action Step that must be done before this Sunday. Please read this message in its entirety.

URGENT STEP by THIS SUNDAY - 19 September

If you have not submitted your power of attorney to Taxperience yet, PLEASE DO SO BY THIS SUNDAY 19 SEPTEMBER. If you have already submitted objection letters to the Belastingdienst, it is essential that you do this. We are still missing some members of the community. If you do not submit your POA, Taxperience cannot include you on their list and you will not be part of the agreement with the Tax Authority. See Step 1 of the Take Action Step for the form (https://www.adealisadeal.nl/take-action) 

 If you have not yet filed objection letters, you can wait to submit your POA until this starts – or you can opt to submit your POA now. Either way, you need a POA on file with Taxperience when you begin submitting objection letters.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

WHY ARE WE WORKING ON AN AGREEMENT WITH THE TAX AUTHORITIES WHEN WE ARE GOING TO COURT?

I understand that this process is confusing. We have 4 exemplar cases going to court. In the meanwhile, we need to make sure that every other individual case would benefit from any “win” of these 4-cases. To do this, we need to come to an agreement with the Tax Authorities. Until an agreement is achieved, all affected individuals must submit individual monthly objections to their wages. Once an agreement is achieved between the legal team and the Tax Authorities, we anticipate that the monthly objection letters will not be needed. Instead, you will submit monthly information to Taxperience about your salary. More details about this process is forthcoming once the agreement is (hopefully) reached. 

WHAT IS THE STATUS UPDATE OF THE AGREEMENT?

Taxperience met with the Tax Authorities again this week. They still have some points that they must discuss internally, but we anticipate that a draft agreement will be ready in the next 2-weeks. As Taxperience finalizes paperwork on their side, it is absolutely critical that everyone that has already objected submits a signed Power of Attorney. Taxperience is going to review their inbox for any new submissions. If you have NOT YET submitted your power of attorney with signature, you must do this before THIS Sunday 19 September to be included in the agreement. This is critical. 

WHAT DO I DO IF THE TAX AUTHORITIES REQUEST INFORMATION OR A HEARING?

We suggest that you comply with all requests for information but request a delay on decision until the agreement with Taxperience is finalized. A draft response letter is available on our website (under Step 3). In your correspondence, we would recommend you include a signed copy of your power of attorney with Taxperience. 

WHAT DO I DO IF THE DELAY PERIOD WITH THE TAX AUTHORITIES HAS (ALMOST) EXPIRED AND A HEARING HAS BEEN REQUESTED?
For many members of the community, the time frame is near expiration from their requested delay (or the delay was not approved). A draft email is now available on our website (Under Step 4 - Hearing Request) whereby you will note that Taxperience is your authorized representative.  Please include a copy of your signed power of attorney letter in your email correspondence with the Tax Authorities for completeness.

Preparing for Legal Efforts, Part 11

Dear UENL Community,

On 9 August, UENL posted an updated FAQ to the UENL community from the legal team. In this update, there were specific situations raised about individuals in the community that have / are planning to change employers and are using the 30-rule.

This led to numerous detailed questions and many specific FAQ follow-ups. We gathered as many of the different examples I could (there were MANY) and Taxperience worked to organize this into a new FAQ specifically for changed-employment. This is a lengthy document that was provided to our community via email, and requires you to carefully review and identify your specific circumstance and then take the appropriate action.

Please check your email for these details, and follow-up with questions to Jessica as needed.

Best,

Jessica

Preparing for Legal Efforts, Part 10

General Summary Update from Legal Team

It is great to receive so many power-of-attorneys from all of you. At this moment, more than 550 expats authorized us to act on their behalf. If you haven’t already, you can download and submit the form from the website under Step 1.

We still do not have an agreement in writing with the tax authorities regarding how we proceed. We are currently waiting on a draft version of this agreement. Once this is in hand, and once the text is agreed to by all parties, we can conclude the agreement (vaststellingsovereenkomst) with the tax authorities. As long as there is no signed agreement, the tax authorities will probably still contact all the expats individually. We (the legal team) are trying to receive a delay to respond to the tax authorities on behalf of everyone who authorized Taxperience to act on their behalf, however, we still have no official answer.

For now, please make sure to continue to file monthly letters of contest. As long as we don’t have a practical agreement with the tax authorities, this will still be needed and timely filing of these letters remains your personal responsibility.

We are receiving a huge amount of mails from the community, and as a result, are not able to answer all of these individual mails. Please read this FAQ to find an answer to one of your questions. Any updates will follow via the community website. Please contact Jessica if you have an urgent question which has not been answered in the FAQ.

Frequently Asked Questions (9 August 2021)

1.     Did Taxperience receive my power of attorney (POA)? The people who have sent there power of attorney prior to 4 August received a confirmation mail by unitedexpats@taxperience.nl, once there POA has been processed and included in our list. We will share this list on a regular basis with our contact person at the tax authorities. The people who sent their POA last week, will receive a confirmation as soon as the POA has been processed. If you don’t receive a confirmation within one week, please resend your POA.

2.     The tax authorities are asking questions and would like to schedule a hoorgesprek, what should I do? The legal team is trying to receive a delay to respond to the tax authorities on behalf of everyone who authorized Taxperience to act on their behalf, however we still have no official answer. Please send the power of attorney to the tax authorities, so the individual tax inspector is aware of the fact that Taxperience is authorized to act on your behalf. We suggest asking for an 8-week delay yourself because of the holiday season to answer the questions of the tax inspector and/or to schedule a hearing. Please make sure that the tax authorities have all the other information they asked to provide, for example: employment agreement, addendum for the 30% ruling, evidence regarding date of salary payment, proof that your letter has been sent in time, etc. You can send the following message to the tax inspector:

Geachte heer, mevrouw,

Taxperience is namens alle gemachtigden van Stichting United Expats (waaronder ik) momenteel in overleg om met de Belastingdienst tot een vaststellingsovereenkomst te komen. Zij hebben hierover overleg met uw collega Carola Opmeer-Bekkers van de Belastingdienst Grote Ondernemingen Arnhem. In de bijlage treft u mijn machtiging aan.

Daarnaast verzoek ik u om uitstel tot een reactie voor een periode van 8 weken in verband met de vakantieperiode.

Met vriendelijke groet,

NAME and BSN

 3.     The tax authorities are not willing to extend the response time, what should I do? Please keep pushing that you are not able to answer the questions due to the holiday season and that you will respond after 8 weeks. During your holiday, you are not able to have a hearing / conversation with the tax authorities even though they suggest the option to schedule this online via WebeX as you are not bringing your laptop or mobile phone during your well-deserved break. Besides that, you also require assistance with this meeting from an expert.

 4.     I received an official rejection of my objection letter due to the fact that it has been filed too late, what should I do? If you haven’t sent your objection letter within 6 weeks after receiving your salary slip or salary payment, the objection letter has probably been filed too late. If the letter has been sent too late, you are not able to object anymore. Your letter will be considered too late. You are not able to profit from the court case outcome for this specific month. (other months sent on time are still eligible)

If you sent the letter in time, but the tax authorities haven’t received the letter within the 6-week period, please make sure that you sent evidence to the tax authorities that you posted the letter in time. Make sure that you can prove the posting of the letter.

Please make sure that you keep filing monthly objection letters in time! For the months that have been filed in time, you might be able to profit from the court case outcome.

 5.     I received an official rejection of my objection letter due to the fact that I switched between employers as of 2019. What should I do? The tax authorities rejected every objection letter, whereby an employee switched between employers and already received a ‘new’ 30% ruling with an adjusted duration period. This is based on their argument that the employee should have objected to the new 30% ruling.

As a result of this, the legal team is taking a fourth case to court related to the switch between employers as of 2019. They are currently preparing the objection letter. Please note that this objection letter should be filed within 6 weeks at the tax court! At this moment, the legal team is aware that letters regarding the rejection have been issued after 12 July 2021 (definitieve afwijzing bezwaarschrift).

The people who are affected should be keeping a close watch on the updates via the website! We currently have a small list of people who are affected, they will receive a short mail at the end of this week, that we are aware of the fact that they received an official rejection letter. This week the legal team will also reach out to a few individuals to check if they are willing to act as our court case.

Next week the legal team will prepare an update and send the people on their list a mail with instructions. If you haven’t heard anything at the end of next week, and you are affected and reaching your 6 weeks deadline, please contact us. Because it is a very tight deadline, we are afraid that the deadline to file an appeal with the tax court expires before we come to an agreement with the tax authorities. Therefore, we expect that every single individual in this specific situation needs to file an objection letter with the tax court and pay the corresponding court fees (€ 49 per objection letter).

6. I am switching between employers as of 2019. What should I do? Please make sure that you file an application for a new 30% ruling together with your new employer and make sure that there is an addendum in place. The view of the tax authorities is that after receipt of the new 30% ruling, with a shortened duration due to the new legislation, you should file an objection letter within 6 weeks after the date of the ruling. You should contest the duration of the 30% ruling. Please note that Taxperience does not assist in this process. This is a separate process.

If you already used the 30% ruling for five years, and the tax authorities did not send you a new 30% ruling but a rejection for the 30% ruling, you should contest this decision as well within 6 weeks after the date of the rejection. Please note that Taxperience does not assist in this process. This is a separate process.