WILLEMSTAD – Minister Silvania of Finance announced on his Facebook page in early 2023 that tax debts from 2017 and earlier will no longer be actively pursued for collection by the Receiver’s Office.

In his Facebook posts, the Minister unequivocally stated that this decision applies to all tax debts and assessments from the tax years 2017 and earlier. The Minister also advised taxpayers to request a debtor list from the Receiver’s Office to verify the accuracy of the cleanup of the collection database.

Today, the Court ruled in several cases that the Minister’s unambiguous and unconditional statements on Facebook, given the circumstances, lead to the conclusion that taxpayers could infer from them that the Receiver’s Office would no longer proceed with collection efforts. Their assessments had already been removed from the debtor list of the Receiver’s Office since the end of January 2023.

The fact that the Ministry of Finance, in a press release dated April 3, 2023, subsequently made three exceptions to the adjusted collection policy does not change the situation for these taxpayers. Those exceptions only apply from April 3, 2023, and therefore not to these specific tax obligations, according to the Court. Consequently, they no longer had a vested interest in the assessment of their appeals. The verdicts can be accessed on www.rechtspraak.nl under case numbers ECLI:NL:OGHACMB:2023:147, 148, and 149.

Bron: Curacao Chronicle

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Voor de uitspraken op Rechtspraak.nl klikt u hier:

https://uitspraken.rechtspraak.nl/#!/details?id=ECLI:NL:OGHACMB:2023:147
https://uitspraken.rechtspraak.nl/#!/details?id=ECLI:NL:OGHACMB:2023:148
https://uitspraken.rechtspraak.nl/#!/details?id=ECLI:NL:OGHACMB:2023:149