Mar 09, 2023 at 3:55 PMUpdate: 3 minutes ago
103,000 entrepreneurs who are behind in paying off corona debts with the tax authorities are being sent letters to repay the money or to request a postponement. In April, the tax authorities have had enough.
Entrepreneurs could apply for a deferment of payment from the Tax and Customs Administration during the corona pandemic. But since October 2022, the tax authorities have been asking them to start paying back almost 20 billion euros in tax debt. Entrepreneurs have five years to do this, but they have had to make monthly repayments since October.
Since October, the Tax and Customs Administration has requested 266,000 entrepreneurs to repay a debt accrued during the corona pandemic. Of these, 21,000 entrepreneurs have now paid off their entire tax debt. A large other group has repaid all four installments.
But 103,000 entrepreneurs are behind on repayments and 73,000 of them have not even repaid anything. There is also a group that is also lagging behind with other tax debts.
From April, the Tax and Customs Administration will collect arrears
All entrepreneurs who are lagging behind will receive messages from the Tax Authorities from March. This contains an overview of the corona debt, other tax debts and the total amount owed. If they do not take action by then, another letter will follow in April with the request to make up for backlogs within two weeks. After that, the tax authorities will start collecting.
The Tax and Customs Administration has announced that entrepreneurs now and also in April have the opportunity to request a postponement.
Entrepreneurs still have to repay 17.2 billion euros
A total of 19.6 billion euros in tax debt had to be repaid as of October. In February, this still amounted to 17.2 billion euros. The cabinet previously predicted that 6 billion euros of this may not be repaid.
In a letter to Parliament, State Secretary of Finance Marnix Van Rij writes that this amount does not need to be adjusted upwards, despite the economic headwind. A new estimate will be made this spring.
Some entrepreneurs deliberately do not pay and hope for a remission
The Tax and Customs Administration has investigated why entrepreneurs default. This showed that some have serious payment problems, but others do not know that they have to pay back or hope for a cancellation of tax debts from the government.
The Tax and Customs Administration now emphasizes that the cabinet considers a generic remission unjust, because some of the entrepreneurs have already repaid the corona debts.
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