I was with a notary this week who told me that he had lost two team members to the tax authorities. An accountant accompanying us added that his children, who had studied tax law, had also joined the tax department. And considering the workload compared to what he himself had gone through in his career, he gave them great credit. I wondered aloud how they thought they would build wealth then.
For 15 years, politicians have been trying to reform the pension system. So there must be something wrong with the current system. Fixing what is wrong is apparently very complex. I heard the chairman of the pension funds' umbrella organisation say that we have the best pension system in the world. So why should it be different? In my memory, the criticism of the system once came from the left and had everything to do with the fact that the young were co-paying for the old.
Winter is over and spring is in full swing. The first blossom colours the landscape and the magnolia draws all the attention in many a garden. The downside for lazy garden owners is that the grass and weeds are starting to grow again and the terrace tiles have come out of winter looking rather drab.
The world is in turmoil. From Washington, daily statements are thrown into the world that leave us all in amazement. That certainly applies to Trump's political opponents. Let's count Mrs. Von der Leyen among them. Between the two, how is that supposed to work? Europe cannot formulate any unified position under her direction and yet she thinks she is an interlocutor for Trump.
Ik had het dit keer met u willen hebben over de kwaliteit van de weersvoorspellingen. Het valt mij namelijk al lang op dat het niet goed gaat met onze meteorologen. Is dat een onderontwikkelde wetenschap? Moeten we daar niet eens wat stimulans in gaan brengen?
A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to attend a reunion drink at the National Audit Office, where my career once began. That was also immediately the best time I experienced. Tax officials do not sufficiently realise the protected status they have. With law in hand, they roam the country, St Nicholas would say. But they don't play Santa Claus.
The commotion focused on the Zuyderland hospitals in Heerlen and Geleen. But surely it must be symptomatic of all regional hospitals. Financial compulsiveness prevails. Hospital administrators are primarily CFOs, so focused on cost and efficiency.
In this edition of the Tripost, we reflect on the freshly installed cabinet's tax plans announced last week. Handsome work, given the short time frame. Content-wise, it is not very exciting yet. There is some twisting of knobs from left to right, but no landslides. That makes sense. We are getting some limited vistas into the further future, but no one is committing to that. There are some simplifications in the plans that give me goose bumps.