Judith (not her real name) lives in beautiful Brabant and one day receives a tax assessment from the Tax Cooperation East Brabant (BSOB). To prevent problems, Judith pays the assessment promptly. It later turns out that this assessment was incorrect. She therefore did not have to pay the amount and files a complaint about it.

BSOB finds Judiths complaint justified. This means Judith will receive back the money she paid. The repayment will be arranged quickly and the amount will appear again in Judiths account. Judith had incurred extra costs, including sending multiple registered letters, because she previously received no response. She would also like to recover this amount of more than €100 from BSOB. 

Compensation

To recover these extra costs, Judith submits a request for compensation. To her surprise, this request is denied. Judith remains of the opinion that these costs are not hers. To resolve this, she offsets the costs incurred with the next assessment she received from BSOB. As a result, that assessment is not fully paid and a small amount remains outstanding.

A writ of execution

When Judith then receives a writ of execution for the outstanding amount, she shares her story with Laurens (not his real name) from the National Ombudsman. The situation causes her a lot of stress and she wants to be reimbursed for the extra costs. Because a writ of execution can have consequences if you do nothing about it, he informs Judith about this. Laurens also asks BSOB to urgently look into the case.

Response

In BSOBs response, it appears that they failed to respond on time several times to the documents Judith submitted. They acknowledge this is not correct and therefore want to compensate most of the costs incurred as a gesture of goodwill. BSOB contacts Judith in writing about this and agrees with her complaint about the extra costs. They also indicate that this process should have gone better.

Carefulness

In this story, I see that some steps caused an unnecessarily long process due to carelessness. It is good to see that BSOB admits mistakes were made and then acts with a human touch. The solution they offer is generous and that is also what you as a citizen can expect. I am glad that Judith has still received most of the costs reimbursed.

 

This column appeared in De Telegraaf on February 7, 2026. The person in the photo is not the person from the text.