Dutch tax office chief resigns after reorganisation failures

The head of the Dutch tax office resigned with immediate effect on Friday, saying he is no longer the most appropriate person to lead the department.

Hans Leijtens was appointed a year ago and his main task has been to oversee a major reorganisation and redundancy drive. But the revamp collapsed into chaos after thousands of staff signed up to leave the service, creating a €70m shortfall in the budget set aside to pay for the reorganisation.

The finance ministery said in a statement that the job no longer matched Leijten’s expectations. ‘The focus of the job has shifted so much that his personal expectations about the job of tax office director general and the way the job needs to be done no longer sufficiently match,’ the statement said.

In October, junior finance minister Eric Wiebes placed the tax office under direct ministerial control and replaced the organisation’s board with a senior civil servant reporting directly to him.

In addition, the introduction of new tax rules for freelancers had to be postponed because the tax office was unable to cope with inquiries.

Leijtens was commander of the military police force before joining the tax office.