About 27,000 taxpayers who wrongly received a tax reduction in the last three years due to an error by the tax administration will have to pay what is owed after the mistake was caught.
The people involved, who were all on disability at some point, received the break after the tax department wrongly considered them to be permanently incapacitated, Het Nieuwsblad reported on Wednesday, citing the FPS Finance.
Belga News Agency reports that these taxpayers are now being asked to pay hundreds or even thousands of euros to account for the difference. They have received correspondence informing them of the error and will receive an adapted version of their tax form for 2019, 2020 and 2021.
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According to FPS Finance spokesperson Francis Adyns, 46,000 people are affected. "This week, around 27,000 letters were sent to correct previous years. As far as the 2021 tax year is concerned, adjustments will be made gradually as the files in question are processed."
The error occurred as a result of a manual data entry mistake that saw temporary disabilities entered as permanent. According to the spokesperson, the process has since been automated to prevent similar errors in the future.
"The administration cannot leave a situation unchanged that it knows is incorrect," Adyns added
