Johannes Alexander "Hans" Vijlbrief (born 17 August 1963) is a Dutch civil servant, economist, and politician, currently serving as a member of parliament for the social-liberal party Democrats 66 (D66).

Vijlbrief was appointed Treasurer-General of the Ministry of Finance in 2011, and occupied that post until he became president of the advisory body Eurogroup Working Group six and a half years later.

Vijlbrief was elected to the House of Representatives in 2021, but he left this position upon his appointment as State Secretary for the Extractive Industries as part of the new fourth Rutte cabinet in January 2022.

[3][11][12] Moreover, Vijlbrief led Maria van der Hoeven's successful campaign to get appointed Executive Director of the International Energy Agency in 2011.

[13] In March 2014, Vijlbrief was chosen to chair the board of the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF), the eurozone's emergency fund to address government debt.

[14] Vijlbrief left the ministry, the EFSF, and Bruegel in 2018 to become the President of the Eurogroup Working Group starting on 1 February, succeeding Thomas Wieser.

[23] Vijlbrief also started working as endowed professor at the University of Amsterdam specialized in European economic and financial policy in September 2018.

[23] After State Secretary for Finance Menno Snel resigned in December 2019, it was made public on 26 January that he would be succeeded by Vijlbrief and Alexandra van Huffelen.

[25][26] Snel resigned after thousands of recipients of childcare benefits had been wrongfully considered fraudsters and had been forced to pay back the money.

[26][27] Weeks before Vijlbrief and Van Huffelen were put forward, Minister of Finance Wopke Hoekstra had decided that benefits (toeslagen) and customs would be spun off from the Tax Administration.

[33] One week after his appointment as State Secretary, Vijlbrief announced that the organization would start working with construction and health care trade associations in order to tackle pseudo self-employment.

[39] Besides, he said that he welcomed the European Commission's more ambitious agenda concerning the issue and that he approved of a deal in the run-up to the 47th G7 summit to commit towards a global minimum corporate tax rate.

[40][41] At the end of February 2020, Trouw and RTL Nieuws reported that the Tax Administration had been using a blacklist containing the names of about 180,000 suspected fraudsters called the Fraude Signaleringsvoorziening.

He also told the House that officials at the Tax Administration had unjustly blacked out a paragraph about the blacklist in a document that the organization had been forced to disclose earlier in order to cover up the story.

[43][45][46] In May 2020, Vijlbrief and Van Huffelen filed a criminal complaint for official misconduct against the Tax Administration they lead in reaction to the childcare benefits scandal.

[50] An investigation concluded in late 2021 that the Tax Administration's blacklist had included people who had not committed fraud and that between 5,000 and 15,000 of them had possibly been wrongfully denied debt restructuring because of their listing.

[51] After the COVID-19 pandemic had reached the Netherlands, the cabinet announced on 12 March 2020 that businesses with financial difficulties would be able to postpone tax payments as soon as they submitted a request.

[54] Vijlbrief also introduced a number of other measures: he and Minister Sigrid Kaag relaxed the application conditions for export credit insurance, he created a €12 billion safety net to guarantee the payment of credit insurance, he made it possible for businesses to deduct their losses from their corporate tax bill earlier, and he and Minister Kajsa Ollongren provided €1.5 billion to aid municipal and provincial governments.

[60] The cabinet later proposed an additional measure worth €4 billion called the Baangerelateerde Investeringskorting (BIK) to stimulate the economy: companies would be able to deduct investments from their payroll tax bill in the following two years.

However, less than a week prior to Vijlbrief's swearing in, his predecessor – Minister of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy Stef Blok – had announced that the planned gas extraction in 2021/22 would be increased from 3.9 billion cubic metres (140×10^9 cu ft) to 7.6 billion cubic metres (270×10^9 cu ft) due to a delay in the construction of a nitrogen plant, which would allow for higher gas imports, and due to a rise in contractual deliveries to Germany.

[74][75] The Russian invasion of Ukraine at the same time led to increasing natural gas prices and to European countries wanting to become less energy-dependent on Russia.

[78] The cabinet definitively decided in late September to extract 2.8 billion cubic metres (99×10^9 cu ft) in 2022/23 – the minimum quantity.

[79] European Commissioner for Internal Market Thierry Breton unsuccessfully called on the Dutch government to reconsider its decision as a result of continuing gas supply issues on the continent.

[80] A parliamentary inquiry into the gas extraction published its report in February 2023 and concluded that profits had been prioritized over the safety of the inhabitants of Groningen.

[88] To make homes earthquake-resistant, Vijlbrief gave the go-ahead in 2022 for an operation to systematically strengthen all structures in the villages of Garrelsweer, Zeerijp, Wirdum, and Leermens.

[92] The collapse of the fourth Rutte cabinet triggered a November 2023 general election, and Vijlbrief was appointed chair of the committee tasked with writing D66's program.

[96] Minister of Finance Eelco Heinen later promised the House that he would look for alternatives to the tax increase for sports, culture, books, and newspapers.