Tjebbe van Oostenbruggen is the new State Secretary for Taxation and Tax Authorities. The Member of Parliament, and ex-CEO of recruitment specialist Brainnet, succeeds the recently resigned Folkert Idsinga.
Van Oostenbruggen made his fortune with the sale of Brainnet, a personnel broker that supplied flexible workers, including numerous IT program managers, business and data intelligence specialists. That experience will be useful to him as the head of the tax authorities who are experiencing major problems recruiting competent IT staff.
The new CEO also has extensive experience with software and IT systems. At Brainnet (now Magnit) he was responsible for IT management as an additional portfolio in addition to all operations. His company developed vendor management software. This platform covers the entire hiring process, from finding suitable candidates to managing contracts and administrative tasks. In 2016, Brainnet was nominated for a Computable Award in the category of recruitment and selection agencies in ICT.
In 2021, American industry peer Pro Unlimited bought the company from Nieuwegein. Brainnet then managed 854 million euros in hiring expenses. With the sale, Van Oostenbruggen acquired several tens of millions of euros. Only recently did Van Oostenbruggen become involved in politics. In the House of Representatives he became spokesperson for finance and the labor market for NSC.
Expat scheme
During the discussion of the Tax Plan, he strongly criticized the so-called expat scheme. ‘The group of very prosperous foreign knowledge workers pays no income tax on thirty percent of their income. This group resembles a kind of privileged, modern nobility: in the past, they were even exempt from work and did not have to pay taxes at all. In the longer term, this is unsustainable and bad for tax morale,” Van Oostenbruggen said at the time.
NSC therefore advocates a reduction in the extraterritorial costs scheme. But on Budget Day it became clear that the government will not compromise the thirty percent scheme for the next two years. The VVD in particular realized that the Dutch IT sector is highly dependent on highly skilled foreign software developers. It would be a disaster if a less favorable tax regime led to an exodus of IT talents and made the Netherlands less attractive.
The question is whether Van Oostenbruggen will abandon his hard position towards ‘the modern nobility’ in his new role as State Secretary.
