A blunder committed within the management of the SPF Finances prevented the dismissal of a senior civil servant who had evaded the tax, reports the newspaper De Tijd on Tuesday on its website. The tax authorities let the disciplinary procedure reach the statute of limitations and failed to respect the legislation on the use of languages, which led the Council of State to annul the dismissal.
The dismissal took place last year but the case goes back several years. The civil servant and her husband had seized the Antwerp court of first instance in 2016 to contest a tax adjustment. However, the judgment did not come until April 2018. The court confirmed that the two taxpayers had evaded tax. It was only then that the tax authorities opened a disciplinary file against the official. Which case resulted in a dismissal on September 1, 2021.
The official nevertheless seized the Council of State in October 2021 and the latter has just canceled the dismissal. The judgment considers in particular that the tax authorities should have initiated the disciplinary procedure in 2015, instead of waiting for the 2018 judgment, which resulted in the limitation period being exceeded. The Council of State also considered that the legislation on the use of languages had not been respected. So many reasons that make the dismissal irregular. The spokesperson for the SPF Finances, contacted by the Tijd, indicated that the tax authorities will comply with the judgment of the Council of State.