What Types of Tax Does the Netherlands Have?
Similar to other nations, Netherland is no stranger to Taxes. Different types of taxes also apply as is one liable for things like taxes on income, local taxes, taxes on assets and even wealth tax.
A few of the different types of taxes Netherland residents pay are:
- Municipal Taxes (Real-Estate Tax)
- Income Tax
- Road Tax (if you own a car)
- Waste-Collection Tax
- Water Tax
- Boating Tax
- Parking Tax
- Dog Tax
But it’s not all as bad as it looks, the government taxes you only if you are able to pay these taxes. So, it depends on aspects like if you have a job, the level of your income, and only if you fall under the category of being able to afford to pay the tax, then the Dutch Tax Office debits a certain amount every month. If you file your tax returns (belastingaangifte) at the end of every tax year, you may get some tax back too. For more information, you can visit their website.
What is a WOZ Evaluation?
WOZ or ‘Immovable Property Tax Act’ is a type of valuation that the municipality does on its resident’s behalf, usually on real-estate/property if you are a homeowner, or if you are renting out an office for instance. This value is reassessed every year and you are sent a notification of the amount to pay. Depending on the municipality, you either have to go to their office to pay it in person or via direct debit.
Other residential categories that pay this tax are social housing, owners of a house boat that may be used to conduct professional services like running an office, are all liable for this real-estate tax.
On top of that the same owners of the boats also pay what’s called a liggeld, which is like a penalty for occupying an area of water that belongs to the authorities, in this case the municipality themselves. If you own a boat for leisure purposes, you pay a boat tax shown by the vignette that needs to be displayed on your boat.
With all these WOZ and additional taxes adding up, it is no wonder some residents are not happy with the evaluations that are sent to them on a year on year basis as due to human error sometimes the total amount can be wrong. But what can you do about this?
Can a WOZ Decision be objected?
The short answer to this is – yes, you can object the WOZ value sent to you. You can either do it yourself directly with the municipality, or seek out the services of professionals who can bezwaar woz for you.
You would need to explain why you are objecting to the decision. Every resident has the right to this service, and information is also provided on a leaflet that is sent from the authorities to you with your evaluation.
Items that they can assist you with are:
- Reimbursing housing costs of up to Euro 270
- Saving you a significant amount on property and real-estate tax payments (up to 30%)
- Saving you a significant amount on multiple properties and real-estate tax payments (up to Euro 730)
With the WOZ value objection services – you can request an evaluation report from them, detailing how they got to the numbers. If your house has not been valued correctly, you can submit this objection to the government body within 6 weeks of the original decision, there after the authorities will give their response and any change in decision by the end of the calendar month in which it was submitted initially https://www.amsterdam.nl/en/municipal-taxes/property-valuation-woz/
Hiring a professional to do this part for you can save you a lot of time and hassles, as they have years of experience handling cases like these, sometimes even going to court with it and have legal knowledge that can assist in the decisions put forth by the municipality office. The bezwaar maker can help you make both a formal informal objection, depending on the circumstances – they would be the best people to decide this for you.
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