By Anke Holtland, Jacobine van Beijeren

The Dutch Data Protection Authority published its decision last week to impose a processing ban on the Minister of Finance for the processing of Citizen Service Numbers ( BSNs ) in VAT identification numbers by the Tax Authorities.

Background of the use of BSNs

The Tax and Customs Administration is charged with providing VAT identification numbers to companies. These VAT identification numbers establish the Tax and Customs Administration for sole proprietorships by supplementing the BSN of the natural person concerned with ‘NL’ (for the BSN) and ‘B’ (behind the BSN). As a result, the BSN is easily derived from the VAT identification number.