De belastingplichtige vraagt om kwijtschelding.

Belastingplichtige is a formal/legal noun meaning taxpayer or more literally a person who is obliged to pay tax.

It is built from:

• belasting = tax
• plicht = duty, obligation
• -ig = an adjective-forming ending
• -e = here it is part of the noun form plichtige, meaning the person who is obliged

So belastingplichtige is a compound noun. Dutch forms long compound words very freely, much more than English does.

De is the definite article, meaning the.

In Dutch, nouns usually take either:

• de
• het

Belastingplichtige is a de-word, so you say de belastingplichtige.

Also, when plichtige refers to a person, it often takes de. For a learner, the safest approach is simply to memorize de belastingplichtige as a fixed combination.

Vraagt is the third person singular present tense of vragen.

The subject is de belastingplichtige, which is singular, so the verb must also be singular:

• ik vraag = I ask / request
• jij vraagt = you ask
• hij/zij/de belastingplichtige vraagt = he/she/the taxpayer asks

So vraagt is used because the subject is the taxpayer, not the taxpayers.

In the present tense, Dutch regular verbs usually take -t in the third person singular.

The infinitive is vragen.
The stem is vraag.
Third person singular adds -t:

• stem: vraag
• third person singular: vraagt

This is very common in Dutch:

• werken → werkt
• wonen → woont
• vragen → vraagt

In this sentence, vragen om means to ask for or to request something.

So:

• vragen = to ask
• vragen om iets = to ask for something

That is why the sentence uses om kwijtschelding.

Compare:

• Hij vraagt een vraag. = He asks a question.
• Hij vraagt om hulp. = He asks for help.

Here, kwijtschelding is the thing being requested, so om is needed.

Kwijtschelding is a noun. It means something like remission, forgiveness, cancellation, or waiver, depending on context.

In tax language, it usually refers to an official decision that someone does not have to pay all or part of a debt or tax amount.

It comes from the verb kwijtschelden, meaning to remit, to forgive, or to cancel a debt/obligation.

So:

• kwijtschelden = verb
• kwijtschelding = noun

It is definitely formal and sounds like administrative or legal Dutch.

Words like:

• belastingplichtige
• kwijtschelding

are common in government, tax, and official documents, but not in casual conversation.

In everyday speech, people might use simpler wording, depending on the situation.

The word order is the standard Dutch main-clause order:

Subject + finite verb + rest

So here:

• De belastingplichtige = subject
• vraagt = finite verb
• om kwijtschelding = prepositional phrase

This is very normal Dutch word order for a simple statement.

Yes. Belastingplichtige is not specifically masculine or feminine in meaning. It can refer to any taxpayer, regardless of gender.

Dutch often uses nouns like this in an officially neutral way, especially in legal or administrative language.

The plural is belastingplichtigen.

So:

• singular: de belastingplichtige vraagt om kwijtschelding
• plural: de belastingplichtigen vragen om kwijtschelding

Notice that both the noun and the verb change:

• belastingplichtige → belastingplichtigen
• vraagt → vragen

These are not easy words for beginners.

A rough English-friendly guide:

• belastingplichtige ≈ buh-LAH-sting-plikh-ti-guh
• kwijtschelding ≈ kveit-skhel-ding

A few important points:

• ij often sounds somewhat like the vowel in English eye, though not exactly the same.
• g and ch in many Dutch accents are throat sounds, stronger than in English.
• sch in kwijtschelding is not pronounced like English sh. It is more like s plus a guttural ch sound.

If you want to sound natural, these are good words to listen to rather than relying only on spelling.

Yes. Verzoekt om kwijtschelding is possible and sounds even more formal.

The difference is roughly:

• vraagt om = asks for
• verzoekt om = requests

In official writing, verzoekt om is very common.
In simpler language, vraagt om is easier and more neutral.

Yes, that is also possible, and it emphasizes making a formal application.

Compare:

• vraagt om kwijtschelding = asks for remission
• vraagt kwijtschelding aan = applies for remission / requests remission officially

The second version uses the separable verb aanvragen:

• aanvragen = to apply for, request formally

So both are possible, but vraagt om kwijtschelding is simpler in structure.