Netherlands Tax Office shifts from Microsoft 365 to on-premises servers

The Netherlands Tax and Customs Administration has canceled its planned migration to Microsoft 365 cloud services. Instead, the agency will utilize infrastructure it controls alongside European open-source alternatives to increase autonomy and digital sovereignty.

State Secretary for Finance Eelco Eerenberg announced the plan, which affects the Belastingdienst, Dutch Customs, and the Benefits Agency. The transition involves moving email and calendars to on-premises servers in 2027, with storage and collaboration services following in late 2027 and 2028. This decision follows a review by the Adviescollege ICT-toetsing, which identified concerns regarding vendor lock-in, the lack of a workable exit strategy, and insufficient data control due to the absence of Double Key Encryption.

The agency has increased its data center capacity to support this on-premises approach and intends to reuse existing licenses where possible to manage costs.