Tax office to drop blue snail mail envelopes

The blue envelopes of the Tax Authorities will be gradually phased out from the end of next year. State Secretary of Finance Eric Wiebes wants to get rid of the requirement that the Tax Authorities must send a letter by snail mail in addition to a digital message. Initially Wiebes wants the tax department to send about 11 million fewer white and blue envelopes annually. After some time this can lead to 70 million fewer items of mail per year. This involves all the mail from the Tax Authorities on income tax, road tax and surcharges. Starting next week all citizens will receive a letter with a request to create an account on Mijnoverheid.nl. In future the Tax Authorities will send an email stating that a new message is waiting on that website. According to a spokesperson of the Tax Authority, the rules first need to be adjusted before the envelopes can be omitted. He thinks the change will take about a year.