An eldery man filled in 3,419,635 euro by mistake instead of 3,419 as his mortgage deduction in 2001. The Dutch tax office didn’t notice the mistake and approved the millions. Once the mistake was finally noticed, they tried to ask for their cash back. The man fought and won.

The Dutch Supreme Court said that the tax office should have noticed the mistake and so the man does not have to give back the money. The Supreme Court leaves it up to politicians to decide whether the tax office should always be held responsible for their mistakes.

Remember: if you screw up on your tax form, the tax office will not point it out to you. This time, tax payers’ money is being given to a 72-year-old man for having made a mistake himself. Life is so fair.

And then a brave bureaucrat said that the loss will probably be taken care of by letting the man not pay taxes instead of giving him cash back.

(Link: rtl.nl)