The Inland Revenue needs to do a better job of helping people who do not file tax return(s). That is a conclusion from a survey by the IBTD to early warning of (payment) problems of citizens and self-employed people.
Estimate
What happens if you fail to file a tax return (slip) issued to you with the Inland Revenue? It depends on which tax is involved.
If it concerns assessment tax (e.g. income or corporation tax and inheritance or gift tax), the Tax Administration will send you one (or more) reminder(s) and eventually a reminder. If, after that reminder, you still do not file the tax return, you will receive a so-called ex officio assessment containing an income estimated by the Tax Administration (and usually also tax interest and a penalty).
With a tax return, you do not receive reminders and demands, but an ex officio tax assessment is imposed immediately, based on an estimate of the tax due (with a penalty).
Both the ex officio assessment and the additional tax assessment can be objected to. This must be done within six weeks of the date of the assessment. Outside this period, an ex officio reduction of the assessment can still be requested.
Payment problems
It is not really surprising that people who fail to file their returns a few times run a hefty risk of running into payment problems.
The researchers consider it important for the Tax Administration to make reasonable estimates when imposing ex officio assessments and additional tax assessments. That goes without saying based on the good governance we are entitled to expect from the government. But then again, it is not surprising that the estimated income/tax comes out somewhat higher than the actual income/tax in many cases. And then interest and penalty are added to that.
ZZP-ers
One of the categories mentioned by the survey, where payment problems arise due to non-filing of returns, are the self-employed. Of course, the tax authorities have to estimate carefully then. But isn't the problem deeper?
After all, our system of levying taxes and contributions still has in it that it is fiscally very interesting to earn your living not as an employee, but as a ZZP-er (both for the ZZP-er and the clients). As a result, there seem to be relatively many ZZP-ers who are not really entrepreneurs and/or who (have to) work at such rates that they do not have the means to get proper help in handling their tax obligations. And the tax obligations of a self-employed person are certainly more complex than those of the average employee.
Surely that would seem to be where politics comes in, rather than the Tax Administration. The same goes for the level of fines, which the researchers suggest should be conditional.