Not only the central government, but also local governments have the right to impose taxes on residents. When living in the Netherlands, you have to expect to pay a number of local taxes and fees.
Dutch municipalities earn about one sixth of their income from taxes levied on residents. The amount of taxes and fees depends on the municipality. How much tax a person pays also depends on, among other things, whether they own a property (e.g. a house) or only rent an apartment and how big the household is.
Local governments may allocate tax revenues (belastingen) for purposes they deem appropriate, while revenues from fees (heffingen) should only cover the costs incurred by the municipality (e.g. local governments may only allocate revenues from waste collection fees (afvalstoffenheffing) for waste collection).
Local governments earn the most money from the onroerendezaakbelasting (OZB) property tax . It is paid by property owners, not tenants. Its amount depends on the assessed value of the property (WOZ-waarde) and the OZB tariff applied in a given municipality.
Example: in Rotterdam, the OZB tariff is 0.0774% of the property value (WOZ-waarde) in 2021, and in Nijmegen it is much higher at 0.2111%. In the case of a house with an estimated value of €248,000, this means €192.08 in Rotterdam and €523.53 in Nijmegen OZB tax in 2021.
Important taxes and fees paid by residents of Dutch municipalities (who do not necessarily have to be owners of the property in which they live) are the waste collection and disposal fee (afvalstoffenheffing), the sewage disposal fee (rioolheffing) and the water tax (waterschapsbelasting).
Garbage collection and disposal fee (afvalstoffenheffing). Its amount usually depends on the number of people registered in a given household. Local governments assume that the more people live at a given address, the more garbage they produce. There are also municipalities that do not apply this rule and the amount of afvalstoffenheffing is the same for all households, regardless of the number of residents.
Example: In The Hague in 2021, the waste collection and disposal fee (afvalstoffenheffing) for a single-person household is €293.16, for a two-person household €329.52 and for a household with three or more people €360.48. In Almere, for example, the fee is fixed for all households and amounts to €377.68 in 2021.
Sewage disposal fee (rioolheffing). Local governments charge fees for using the sewage system, draining rainwater and maintaining an appropriate level of groundwater. In some municipalities, this is a single fee, in others, separate fees are paid for using the sewage system and separately for draining rainwater and maintaining an appropriate level of groundwater. Some municipalities demand fees only from the owner of the building (sometimes it depends on the value of the property), others also from the tenants. The amount of this fee varies from municipality to municipality; some municipalities, when setting the fee, take into account the number of cubic meters of drained water, in some it also depends on the size of the household.
Example: In Eindhoven in 2021, the owner of an apartment must pay 153 euros in rioolheffing, and the user of the property pays 216 euros for every 500 cubic meters of water drained. In the municipality of Westland, the amount of rioolheffing in 2021 for the owner of the property depends on the estimated value of the property (0.0211% of the value of the apartment WOZ-waarde), and for tenants – on the size of the household (163.32 euros for a 1-person household, 184.32 euros for a 2-person household, 205.56 euros for a 3-person household or larger, 211.80 euros for a company).
Waterschapsbelasting. The Netherlands is a country of canals, dams, embankments, lakes, sea, rivers, polders and depressions, in short: a country of water and eternal attempts to tame this element. Water management, looking after dams and embankments, protection against floods and ensuring good water quality, play a much greater role here than in many other countries. And this costs money, hence the “waterschapsbelasting” tax. It goes not to local governments, but to special bodies responsible for water management, the so-called waterschappen. In addition to dealing with broadly understood water management (taking care of embankments, dams and canals, counteracting floods and droughts), they are also responsible for local roads and cycle paths in undeveloped areas.
Currently, the Netherlands is divided into 21 waterschappen. Each has its own way of calculating this tax. Its amount depends, for example, on whether you are the owner of the property or just a tenant and the size of the household. There are usually two components of this tax: watersysteemheffing (a fee for running the water management) and zuiveringsheffing (a fee for purification, treatment of water). In addition to the water tax, waterschappen charge separate fees for water consumption.
Example : A 4-person family living in Amsterdam in a freehold apartment worth 350,000 euros will pay a total of 321.98 euros in waterschapsbelasting in 2021. This amount consists of: a water treatment fee (higher for multi-person households than for single-person households) zuiveringsheffing 168.81 euros, a general water management fee watersysteem heffing ingezetene in a fixed amount of 117.04 euros per apartment, and watersysteemheffing gebouwd (additional fee for landlords; if this family were only renting an apartment, they would not have to pay it) in an amount depending on the value of the apartment (WOZ-waarde), in this example it is 42.44 euros (0.012126% WOZ-waarde of 350,000 euros).
Tourist tax. Municipalities may – but do not have to – levy a tourist tax. The owner of a hotel or campsite, for example, pays it for each night sold. These costs are usually passed on to the tourist, so staying overnight in municipalities with a (high) tourist tax is more expensive than elsewhere in the Netherlands. Municipalities determine the amount of this tax in different ways: for example, it can be a fixed amount for each night or as a percentage of the price of the accommodation (or both).
Example: In the municipality of Noordwijk, for one night’s stay of one tourist, the owner of a hotel pays 1.52 euros in 2021. In Amsterdam in 2021, the tourist tax in hotels amounts to 7% of the price paid by the tourist for the night’s stay plus 3 euros per night.
Dutch local authorities can impose many other taxes and fees on residents and businesses. These include, for example, the parking tax parkeerbelasting (i.e. a fee for parking in paid parking zones), the dog tax hondenbelasting (in 2019, it was applied in 57% of Dutch municipalities, depending on the location, it ranged from several dozen euros to over 100 euros per dog per year), the temporary stay tax forensenbelasting (paid by people who are not registered in a given municipality but stay there for at least 90 days per year), the “advertising tax” reclamebelasting (i.e. a tax on, for example, advertising boards and billboards in public places).
Municipalities may also charge stamp duties (“leges”) for issuing documents, certificates and permits, as well as various services. These include fees for issuing a passport or driving license, for entering into a civil marriage at the municipal office, or for issuing building permits.
In 2020, the total revenues of all Dutch municipalities from local taxes and fees will amount to around 10.8 billion euros, according to estimates published by local government officials at the beginning of 2020. This is over 6% more than a year earlier. Local governments expect to earn the most, as much as 4.3 billion euros, from the OZB property tax. Revenues from waste collection and disposal fees (afvalstoffenheffing) are to amount to just under 2 billion euros in 2020, and municipalities intend to receive around 1.7 billion euros from sewage disposal fees in 2020.