Five tax advisors arrested as finance ministry gets tough on fraud

Five tax advisors have been arrested for defrauding the tax office of €2.7m following a string of investigations by finance ministry inspectors.

The five were arrested in raids on homes and offices in Stein, Rijssen, Hoorn, Purmerend, Hendrik-Ido-Ambacht and Wezep over the past two weeks. The tax advisors are suspected of claiming extra tax breaks on healthcare costs and gifts, and in some cases used forged papers to justify the claims.

Officials sequestered several bank accounts, homes and cars and found €185,000 in cash at one address. The origin of the cash is still being traced.

Tax inspectors will now reassess the tax returns made by some 6,000 clients, and they have also been asked to check their papers again themselves. The tax office said in a statement that everyone is ultimately responsible for their own tax return, even if it has been filled in by an advisor.

‘If a tax advisor draws up a tax return for you which is too good to be true, then it probably is,’ the department said in a statement.

A further 10 tax advisors face a grilling by department experts on their methods, officials said.