Hi,
I am writing this because I am feeling cheated by the Dutch government. I am an expat living here with my family since October 2016. When I first arrived I was offered by the government 8 years of tax reduction (the 30% ruling) which would end on October 2023.
But suddenly the government decided to cut the benefit before the time initially promised which and suddenly I got a very big loss of income for me an my family of approximately 45 thousand Euros in the next three years. I can't understand how they could do that.
Please understand that my family and I are really happy to live here. We love the country, my kids are really happy but we had our life planned so my wife would be taking care of the kids until 2023 when she would then start looking for a job and so we could handle the loss of income. I mean, it has been a very big hit on us and we're feeling anxious and nervous about the situation, it's even affecting my performance at work and sleep.
We had another child in 2018 and we had everything planned around the 8 years so it's impossible that my wife goes to work by now.
I feel really cheated by the Dutch government but I am not really aware of the legal system in the Netherlands.
Should I pursue a legal case against the governments? Do I have a chance? I believe there's a lot more people in my situation. Should we try a collective case?
And based on the recent scandal regarding the fines applied to expat I can only think there are a lot of xenophobic people in the government which is terrible but the reduction of the 30% could also be caused by such people.
Thanks in advance.
Should I pursue a legal case against the reduction of the 30% ruling.
I feel your pain. I am also an expat and feel as if I am cheated sometimes also. There is definitely a feeling by expats and my family have gotten a stronger feeling of being treated a certain way because we not proper dutch citizens. We fell in love with the country and our children were both born here. We moved here in 2013 and can't get the feeling that maybe the scales are turned somewhat against us. Especially even more after learning of this scandal or fact that expats were def treated worse by tax authorities. Not sure if you can beat them in court but nothing tried nothing gained.
Good Luck and God bless.
Hi and welcome to the Forum.
First thing to say is I am not a finance advisor, so I'm not qualified to offer advice.
So, personally, the only thing I can see that would cause an issue to your complaint is that the tax relief is designed to compensate you for "extraterritorial costs", so these are costs you incurred in moving to the Netherlands, so maintaining your family home in your former country of residence, the cost of moving your family; so any case would have to focus on those losses.
I don't think there is anybody currently on the Forum who can offer you appropriate advice, so you can check out our Services link at the top of the page and see what that reveals. I also did a quick Google search and there is a company called BDO Netherlands who seem to be engaged in this issue, this link will take you straight to their contact page where you can find details on how to contact them.
As always, when dealing with financial matters, watch out for scammers.
I wish you the best of luck.
Hope this helps.
Cynic
Expat Team
You need to object against the decision, you can find how on the belastingdienst website. You will need the decision of your 8 year tax reduction on paper, the new letter stating they reduced it to 5 years, financial stuff on paper and everything else they ask you to send to them.
You can ask the help of an tax advisor if you want to know more. A lawyer isn't going to do much help, the judge will always say you have to object the decision first.
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