In the Netherlands, you can submit your income tax return from the 1st of March. A large part of relevant data for this declaration will be pre-filled in the online tax form. In Dutch, this pre-completed tax return is called VIA (vooraf ingevulde aangifte). Founders also uses the VIA. What this means for you is explained in this blog.

What is the VIA?
The pre-completed tax return has been in use since 2012, and since then the amount of data that will already be filled in has grown considerably. Exactly how much and which data is pre-filled differs per person, but in most cases this will be the majority of the required data such as wage or benefit income, value of immovable property (WOZ in Dutch) and mortgage, bank balances, and pension income. The Dutch Tax and Customs Administration receives this info from your employer, municipality, bank and other government agencies. This is convenient, because the only thing left for you to do is to check the data and submit the tax return.

My income tax return is processed by Founders
As a client of Founders, you don’t have to submit your income tax return yourself, as we take care of this for you! As an intermediary, we can also use the pre-completed declaration. This ensures that we can submit a complete and accurate tax return for you.

Of course, we can’t just automatically get access to your personal data: we need your permission for this first. This can be done by requesting an authorization:

•       We request a VIA for your from the Dutch Tax and Customs Administration via our tax declaration software.
•       You will then receive a letter from the Dutch Tax and Customs Administration with a code.
•       We’ll ask you to email a picture of your letter to your bookkeeper. With this, your bookkeeper can finalize the authorization.
•       From that moment on, we’ll have a continuous authorization for the VIA. You only have to give your permission once.
•       You can revoke the authorization at any time, for example if your company ceases to exist or if you switch accountants.

Will anything change for me?
Basically, nothing changes. Once you’ve issued the authorization, it will continue to run until you withdraw it. So it’s not something you need to take care of on a yearly basis. The provision of the data for your income tax return also remains the same. We’ll still ask you to complete the online questionnaire and attach the relevant documents. Your accountant needs these documents to check the pre-completed tax return and, if necessary, correct it. 

Of course, there’s always the possibility that you might forget to add something, such as the annual statement of a short-term benefit or the overview of your bank accounts. If your accountant notices any data in the VIA that you haven’t indicated, he or she will always check with you whether this information is indeed correct. You can therefore think of the VIA as a sort of safety net: it gives you  extra certainty that your income tax return is complete. This prevents unwelcome surprises afterwards.

Should you have any questions about the VIA or about issuing the authorization, contact your accountant.