If you rent a room, apartment or even a house it does not matter if you are a student or not a student, because every new year the letters regarding municipality taxes land on your doorstep. Multiple institutions charge these municipality taxes and therefore, these letters can be confusing. So, which institution charges what, what do you pay them and what is it that they do with your money?
Two institutions
There are two kinds of organizations that charge you with municipality taxes.
- City Council Rotterdam (in Dutch: gemeente Rotterdam).
- Regional Tax Group (in Dutch: Regionale Belasting Groep).
What are the taxes these institutions charge for?
City Council Rotterdam
The congregation collects a variety of taxes. For renters and thus, students only the trash taxes (in Dutch: afvalstoffenheffing) are charged. These taxes are used to assimilate trash and waste as well as pick up the trash.
Regional Tax Group
The Regional Tax Group collects the water board taxes (in Dutch: hoogheemraadschappen) of the regions Delfland, Schieland and Krimpenerswaard.
The water board taxes are used to keep you from getting wet feet by strong dykes as well as making sure the water stays clean.
There are two types of water board taxes that you have to pay:
1. Water system levy (in Dutch: Watersysteemheffing).
2. Pollution taxes (in Dutch: Zuiveringsheffing / Verontreiningsheffing)
How much are the taxes?
All taxes are calculated for an entire year, so 12 months.
Trash taxes / Afvalstoffen heffing
In 2018, the trash taxes are € 328,20 per household. These are charged to the tenant or landlord. If charged to the landlord, they will be charged from the landlord to the tenant.
Water board taxes / Hoogheemraadschappen
In 2018 the following amounts were charged for water board taxes.
1. Water system levy: € 121,47
2. Pollution taxes: € 280,50
Sample calculation
So if you are renting a place with 4 tenant's, these will be your monthly costs.
328,20 (trash) + 121,47 (water system) + 280,50 (pollution) = 730,17 / 4 / 12 = 15,21 euro per month
Paying for a whole year and not renting the whole year?
All taxes are annualy based, so you will receive a bill for the entire year. However, you only rented the apartment e.g. for four months. It would be unreasonable to pay the taxes for the months you didn’t live there. This is not the case. When you deregister, the two institutions will be informed that you left the apartment and will automatically send you a refund for the rest of the year!
If you didn't receive the refund, please contact them (contact details below)!
Can you apply for remission?
Under certain conditions you can apply for remission (in Dutch: kwijtschelding) at both institutions.
City Council Rotterdam
Two situations can apply:
1. You rent a room. If you rent a room, your landlord is responsible for the taxes. However, he or she will charge you the trash taxes since you are the one using the room. But, this means that you yourself cannot apply for remission since you are not the one responsible for the taxes. This means that you have to pay the trash taxes.
2. You rent an entire apartment
If you are eligible for remission depends on a variety of factors, one of which is income. You can apply for remission online via your mijn toeslagen account.
Regional tax Group
Like with the Congregation, for the Regional Tax Group if you are eligible for remission depends on your income.
Important note: you can only apply for remission for water system levy, so not for the pollution taxes.
If you think your income is too low to pay the water system levy, you can fill in the card attached to the bill. The Regional Tax Group will calculate if indeed your income is low enough to be eligible for remission.
Important note: You have to apply within two months after receiving the water system levy bill.
Searching information online
If the above information is not clear to you. You can visit the following websites for information about the different taxes.
This link will bring you to the English homepage of De Regionale Belasting Groep (Water charge) https://www.derbg.nl/en/.
This link will bring you to the English homepage of the Gemeente Rotterdam (Sewage, Waste disposal and Pollution charge) https://rotterdamexpatcentre.nl/.
Further questions?
With this information we try to make things as clear as possible for you. We can’t help you with all the questions, because it’s another organisation and not all the information is available to us. If you have any questions you can call + (0) 10 2671625 (Rotterdam) stay on the line, you will get an employ on the line automatically.