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Comment by jacquesm | Hacker News Reader

This is exactly it. If there is any culpability it is on behalf of the gastouderkantoren (and even there: lots of honest mistakes were made) not on behalf of those that got sucked into a system they barely understood (and which plenty of Dutch natives also don't understand).

Don't get me started on forfaits, they should be illegal. The tax office essentially gets to declare what they believe you could have earned instead of what you actually earned and then they tax you on that.

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Totally agreed.

There's a whole industry of shady companies who help you with tax-savings, for example a very common one in IT is companies who "help" you claim R&D or innovation funding. I've seen that used a lot but never for anything which was actually innovitive.

The WSBO is a total fraud. But the same happens in every European country using common funds. And despite the trend in this thread to label people in eastern Europe as fraudster, the native dutch commit a lot of fraud themselves. It's easy to prey on the vulnerable fraudster and not look at the state making 'special' and unequal laws for bigger companies, deleting their debts, reducing their taxes, just because the state makes more money if they don't leave. How about the Tax office/BD, who is connected to all the banks and transactions, who as you said above charged you on your 4% on fictional, when they could have easily seen how much you made, or who only reimbursed the people who sued the government? I could go on forever. The people in this thread who defend the officials who made possible for children to be taken away from their families for these small or even inexistent offences are mad hypocrites.

Their IT are broadly inept (it's a cultural thing) and totally incapable of doing it.

And the status quo of keeping it inept benefits exactly one side.

I was also contacted multiple times by people who can help fill in the WBSO forms. It is not that hard to do it yourself.

A recent one is the STAP budget where every citizen can get 1000,- for education and millions went to get rich quick courses run by shady influencers.

Offer free money, people will abuse it, but if you crack down on fraudsters you will probably destroy some innocent people in the process.

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