Higher waste tax causes steep rise in municipal residential taxes

The municipal residential taxes have risen steeply this year compared with previous years. Tenants will pay 5.4 percent more, owner-occupiers 4.3 percent. The rise is a knock-on effect of the central government’s decision to raise waste taxes by 139 percent. Municipalities have passed this extra expense on to their residents. This is apparent from the report ‘Key Items Relating to Taxes in Large Municipalities 2019 [Kerngegevens belastingen grote gemeenten 2018]’, written by the University of Groningen’s Centre for Research on Local Government Economics [Centrum voor Onderzoek van de Economie van de Lagere Overheden, COELO].

For its annual review, COELO looked at the tax rates in 37 large municipalities, where a total of 39 percent of the Dutch population lives. The entire report, including figures for each separate large municipality, can be viewed at www.coelo.nl.

Central government raises waste tax

Waste disposal companies pay waste tax to the government for all of the waste that they burn or dump. They then pass these costs on to the municipalities. In 2019, central government raised waste tax by 139 percent. As a result, municipalities are 3.5 to 4 percent worse off. It will take time to introduce measures to stimulate recycling and eventually reduce the need to burn waste. Until then, municipalities must find a way to cover the extra costs. They have done this by raising waste collection levies.

________________________________________________
> More news from the Faculty of Economics and Business
> FEB experts in the media