The pressure of work at the Dutch tax office is so high that there are fewer people to track down fraud and the treasury is missing out on billions of euros, the civil service union Abvakabo said on Friday.

The service is understaffed and problems with the way the tax service helplines work have not yet been solved, the union said.

It wants the government to shelve a planned cut of €400m which will involve closing 22 of the 40 regional tax offices. ‘On balance, the size of the workforce has not increased, there is more work and the pressure problems have not been solved,’ spokeswoman Mieke van Vliet said.

Fraud

The union’s position is in contrast to a statement by tax minister Eric Wiebes who said earlier on Friday that extra efforts to combat fraud have resulted in net gains of €250m.

‘We have spent a lot on solving the problems and that is now beginning to bear fruit,’ Wiebes told Radio 1 news. Last year, the tax department brought in 1,200 extra officials, which cost €160m, he said.

The deadline for submitting a tax return is April 1. So far some six million people have done so, Wiebes said.