When the tax authorities fill in your return for you, it is not illogical to assume, “they know everything about me, as far as it is relevant to my return”. Yet around the pre-completed tax return (also known as VIA), there are several warnings that the onus is on the taxpayer to file a correct and complete income tax/national insurance contribution return for the full 100%. Thus, it is imperative that you carefully check the data entered by the taxman and check whether that data is complete.
This was recently confirmed with crystal clarity by the District Court of The Hague. There, a taxpayer argued that he was entitled to trust that the VIA was complete. He therefore believed that the tax authorities should not correct his tax return with this allowance. However, the Court ruled, correctly in our opinion, that the taxability of the benefit follows from the law and that the circumstance that the benefit was not mentioned in the VIA is no reason not to correct the tax return.