Preparing for Legal Efforts, Part 3

Dear UENL Community Members,

It’s been a busy week as the legal team has continued conversations with the Dutch tax authority, and has worked with us to relay this information and translate this to key action steps for our community.

We are now ready to ask for your action. This will involve two key steps to continue your participation in the litigation process:

1.     Step 1- Agreement to Object and Participate in Legal Action. There is a webform now available on our website which asks you to review and confirm your participation in the litigation. This form asks for specific information about you and your situation. This information goes directly to the legal team and is NOT stored on UENL servers.

2.     Step 2 - Download, Print, and Mail Pro Forma Objection Letter. If your 30% ruling has ENDED as of January or February 2021, please follow the instructions to submit a pro forma letter of objection ASAP. If your 30% ruling has not yet ended, you can wait on this step until your salary is affected but PLEASE complete Step 1.  

To complete these action points, please visit our TAKE ACTION page.

We kindly ask you to review all information so that you are properly informed and understand the limitations and challenges in this process. If you are agree, we recommend you take action as soon as possible.

We understand you may have questions. Rather than try to manage all of these questions 1:1 over email, we have set up a community call with our legal team on Tuesday (9 March) at 20:00. This is an optional call, open to all members of the community, whereby you can ask general questions about this process. UENL Board members will moderate the session. It will be hosted on Zoom. The meeting will NOT be recorded as to protect privacy, but a summary will be provided to the community via email. Check your email for details about this call.

We hope to have sufficiently informed you.

Sincerely,

The UENL Board

Preparing for Legal Efforts, Part 2

Dear UENL Community,

A version of this post was also shared via the Google Groups.

To briefly recap the situation: The Belastingdienst, thus far, remains unwilling to come to an agreement regarding the representation of all members that are affected by the 30Rule law change. They have suggested a process that is cumbersome (monthly letters; post mail; per person); costly (49 euro monthly appeals; post mail; per person); and simply counter to the the lessons learned in recent months on the importance of ensuring individuals have a manageable and fair means of objecting.

The decision from the meeting: We have agreed with the legal team to a 3-point plan which includes (1) formal response from legal team which offers a reasonable counterplan, (2) response from all community members, and if needed (3) other voice-raising efforts.

What does this mean for you? We cannot do this part alone. We need your help. In the coming days, we will have a website space with detailed directions for you. This will include (1) a proforma letter (akin to a letter of intent) that we will need you to PRINT, SIGN, and MAIL <must be paper> and (2) a web form that notes your support of the proforma letter that we will need to you similarly review, digitally sign, and submit. There will be detailed directions on the website. Taxperience is preparing the letter now, and we are working on the web support for this.

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has. -Margaret Mead

Preparing for Legal Efforts

Dear UENL Community,

Some brief updates also shared via our Google Group.

1. Government Fall. As most of us are aware, the fall of the government has indeed highlighted problematic practices associated with taxation. At the moment, this does not have direct implications for our case however, naturally, the legal team is aware of this broader context.

2. Meetings with Belastingdienst. Our legal team has met for a second time with the Belastingdienst to come to an agreement on how the case will proceed in court, including what information will be necessary to collect from each person. Unfortunately, no agreement has been made yet. There is a third meeting already planned in which they hope to have clearer terms established. While frustrating, I assure the legal team is working expeditiously.

3. Your Information. One of the key points from these meetings is to determine specifically what information is needed from ALL OF YOU to ensure you are represented and also to ensure that any court decisions impact you as appropriate. We anticipate that, at the conclusion of the third meeting, we will know specifically what information you must organize and how to submit it. In preparation, I would already recommend identifying when your 30% rule will expire under the new legislation. As soon as we know specifically what must be collected, we will inform you - but I am certain that the date of expiration will be important.

When we have more information, this will be shared through the Google Group. Please do join if you are interested to follow all updates.