Deputy Minister of Finance Weekers wants court hearings of tax matters to be public and wishes to remove the anonymity on published court decisions. He has now presented a draft legislative proposal for internet consultation for that purpose.
Weekers points out that this legislative proposal is in line with legislation in neighboring countries and is also common practice in other areas of Dutch law, for example criminal law, law on termination of employment or administrative law. Procedures at the European Court of Justice and the European Court on Human Rights are generally public, which means that the parties are mentioned by their full name in the publications of these courts. However, it is possible for parties to request anonymity at the Court of Justice.
The aim of the rule
The proposal aims to amend the hearing regulations, whereby tax case law will be public and will no longer be carried out behind closed doors. The transparency is a direct consequence of the Dutch Constitution and international rules and serves the public interest as it increases the recognizability and verifiability of case law. It will still be possible for a tax court to have a case heard behind closed doors should one of the parties to the proceedings request so. The proposal also concerns the publication of decisions in tax matters; the current procedure will not be amended. This proposal aims to enable the court to publicize its decision, stating the full names of the parties, should certain interests be served by doing so. For example, in a case whereby a municipality brings proceedings against the Dutch Revenue. And finally, the court will no longer be required to authorize the distribution of the decision to third parties.
Consultation
The draft legislative proposal is now publicized for public consultation and can be viewed on www.internetconsultatie.nl. The Deputy Finance Minister wishes to provide everyone the opportunity to respond to the proposal. Any feedback received will be taken into consideration before finally deciding if and how the legislative proposal will be made. The Lower House will receive a report on the results of the consultation.