No business like old clothes business: BTW tax to apply on King’s Day
People making brisk business selling cakes, old clothes and well-loved possessions on King’s Day can expect one very enthusiastic visitor this year: the taxman.
The Dutch tax authority has announced that no longer will street traders be seen as semi-inebriated chancers trying to fleece passersby for a few euros: they will be treated as businesses and required to pay Dutch BTW value-added tax of 21%.
Its change of heart is due to tightening tax regulations across the EU, originally intended to deal with complex, cross-border internet transactions.
Bee Russells, an advisor at the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Economic and Financial Misaffairs said: ‘No day is exempt from EU legislation. They might call it a ‘free market’ but the normal tax rules apply. Thursday, 27th April will be no different.’
Target children
Tax inspector Jeroen Kinderdief told DutchNews.nl that in this changeover year, people will be able to make cash payments to roving tax officials, but from 2018, bonnetjes receipts will be required, particularly in Limburg.
‘We will be targeting the under-18s, people selling cakes and second-hand book vendors, as research shows they are the most likely to respond honestly when asked about their earnings,’ he said.
‘Children may in future be able to offset any tax payments against their student debts when they go to college or university.’
Cash for refugees
Inspectors will be equipped with orange jackets and calculators, and the tax office is recruiting extra staff to handle the expected bonanza, which will be used to pay transport costs for refugees to fill the Netherlands’ empty asylum centres.
A spokesman for finance minister and Eurogroup chief Jeroen Dijsselbloem told DutchNews.nl the new rules show that the EU is serious about stopping fraud and getting its finances in order. ‘People cannot spend all their money on drink and women without paying tax,’ the spokesman said.
But the announcement has been greeted with dismay by citizens. Hanneke van Rijkeluis, a lawyer from Amsterdam, wailed on Facebook: ‘My ten year-old and my eight year-old love King’s Day. I think it’s important to train their entrepreneurial skills at an early stage.
‘Tristan will be playing his clarinet in the Vondelpark and I know he will be out there by eight. Charlotte will be taking up her usual post in the Beethovenstraat, with her saxophone. I know people around here are generous but VAT, seriously? Those music lessons don’t come cheap, you know.’
Tit for tat
Boaz Burger, of the Volendam King’s Day Organising Committee, said the move was a ‘kick in the teeth’ for local residents.
‘This is just the latest example of the long arm of Brussels poking its nose in where it’s not wanted,’ he told DutchNews.nl, announcing plans for street demonstrations. ‘Our traditional values are being undermined by champagne-swilling bureaucrats with no sense of reality.
‘Americans are up in arms when their constitutional rights are threatened, but our government in The Hague has simply given up. It is our longstanding right and duty to freely sell our old tat to our neighbours on the King’s birthday.”
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