The Municipality makes a sensational mistake: hundreds of families do not have to pay taxes

Due to a sensational mistake by the Municipality, hundreds of families do not have to pay taxes, a dream come true for many citizens but undoubtedly a nightmare for the official who committed it.
Of course, mistakes can always happen at work and no one should be condemned for this, but not all errors lead to losses of up to approximately 300,000 euros.
The main problem is not the error itself, due to the incorrect sending of a communication on the tax relief, but rather the impossibility of canceling it given that it is an irreversible benefit.
At this point it is easy to imagine readers' comments on the malfunctions of public administrations in Italy and the various controversies over taxes.
Well, finding out which municipality is the protagonist of this scandal will leave you speechless.
Municipality's mistake, hundreds of families exempted from taxes What could be the Municipality that inflicts a loss on itself of almost 300,000 euros and can't even correct it? Before everyone starts drawing hasty conclusions, usually citing the place where you live and where you have had direct experience, let's clarify one thing: this episode did not happen in Italy.
Not only is it not an Italian municipality, but to definitively say goodbye to clichés, know that the place in question is Zaanstad, a Dutch municipality which has just over 100,000 inhabitants.
Probably, even assuming that the event had happened abroad, there would have been readers who thought of the Netherlands, which we usually look to as inspiration.
Not that this tragicomic episode should lead to a reevaluation of this or that country, but not even to the work of the official.
To make mistakes is human, especially if you are working, and without a doubt the attention of everyone everywhere will be much more concentrated from now on.
As already mentioned, the economic loss for the Municipality of Zaanstad was quite large.
Not that there can be any certainty, considering that last year a different Dutch municipality credited amounts of over half a million euros to some residents due to an administrative error.
In short, a prosperous period for some lucky Dutch people and probably very stressful for public workers.
What happened? In February 2024, hundreds of families living in the Municipality of Zaanstad received an official communication from the Municipality, in which they were informed of the automatic exemption from sewerage and waste taxes.
Considering that this year's waste tax amounts to 347.83 euros and the sewerage tax to 315.68 euros, this sensational error has cost the administration more than half a million euros.
Not all money was lost, considering that according to the Municipality's forecasts, about half of the exempt residents were actually entitled to the relief.
The actual loss would therefore be around 274,000 euros, corresponding to the taxes that were unduly exempted from some families.
Obviously, the Municipality of Zaanstad did not take long to notice the mistake, sending a corrective communication to the citizens a few days later.
This created considerable confusion, which was put to rest by Councilor Stephanie Onclin's letter sent to the city council.
We learn that the error, attributed to the incorrect processing of the list provided by the Water Agency, is not reversible.
Whoever received the letter will therefore be able to benefit from the relief and should soon receive a third communication from the Municipality confirming it.
Obviously, from next year the parameters for granting the relief will return to normal, according to the Municipality's assessments.
In 2023, however, a similar episode happened in the Municipality of Apeldoorn: hundreds of residents received an unjustified credit from the Municipality, due to an administrative error of around 500,000 euros.
As already mentioned, errors that can happen, but are undoubtedly worthy of note.
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