The prospective nominee for the Netherlands Secretary of Finance, who would’ve overseen the newly approved 36% tax on unrealised crypto gains, has stepped down after lying about her CV’s credentials.
Democrats 66 member Nathalie van Berkel announced yesterday that she would withdraw her bid to become Secretary of Finance after the news outlet De Volkskrant discovered multiple discrepancies in her resume.
She claimed to have a master’s degree in public administration from Leiden University, to have studied law at Erasmus University, and that she had completed her higher professional education.
De Volkskrant questioned her credentials, and over the course of a week, she reportedly changed her CV three times, with each revision lowering the quality of her educational background.
They discovered that Van Berkel had only applied for a master’s and that she hadn’t completed the admission program for students applying without the right qualifications.
Van Berkel also never finished her first year at Erasmus, and she only has a secondary school diploma and a first-year diploma for a bachelor’s degree in public administration.
Nathalie van Berkel regrets CV mistakes
Van Berkel was the prospective candidate for the coalition government’s upcoming Secretary of Finance cabinet role and was penciled in to start on February 23.
In her withdrawal (translated from Dutch), she claims, “It was never my intention to misrepresent my CV. I regret that this impression has been created.”
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“I would have loved to use my knowledge and experience to contribute to a government that works better for people,” she said, adding that her educational background has become a distraction “from the important tasks facing this cabinet. I regret that.”
She previously told De Volkskrant that her CV was “to the best of her knowledge, based on her memory.” D66 reportedly claimed that Van Berkel was transparent “that she did not complete her education” when speaking to the party’s integrity committee.
She will remain in the D66 party, which is part of the current coalition government alongside the Christian Democrats and the People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy.
Netherlands to implement 36% on unrealised crypto gains
Last Thursday, the Netherlands’ House of Representatives approved the “Actual Return in Box 3 Act” that introduces new tax regulations drafted up by the coalition government, which has left crypto holders worked up.
The law seeks to tax unrealized capital gains annually on stocks, bonds, and cryptocurrencies. This means that, if your invested asset goes up in price and you choose not to sell, you will still have to pay tax on that asset’s increase in price.
The new law was required after the Netherlands’ supreme court ruled in 2024 that the old system, which instead assumed the taxes due on capital gains, was discriminatory and had overtaxed citizens.
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Politicians at the time estimated this would cost the state €4 billion ($4.7 billion) to repay what was owed.
The new regulations are scheduled to come into effect in 2028. There is also pressure from the majority in the Netherlands House of Representatives to remove the unrealised capital gains tax by 2028.
Protos has reached out to Dutch tax firms for comment on the new tax regulations and will update this piece should we hear anything back.