The Zandvoort city council voted last night for the entertainment tax, also known as fun tax. Larger events must pay 3 euros per visitor to the municipality for this. This means that the organization of the F1 Dutch Grand Prix may have to fill the municipal coffers with 900,000 euros from 2024.
Only events in Zandvoort that have ten thousand visitors or more must pay this fun tax. And that really only applies to F1 and maybe the Historic Grand Prix.
No tax has to be paid on the first 10,000 visitors. After that the counter will start running: 3 euros per visitor. In the case of a weekend ticket (Friday, Saturday and Sunday) for the F1 Dutch Grand Prix, the organization must pay three times, so 9 euros. Assuming that 110,000 fans come to the circuit every day, 900,000 will flow to the municipal coffers in one weekend.
The municipality comes with the tax to compensate for extra costs for events. In the Zandvoort council thirteen members voted for the extra tax, three, Groenlinks, D66 and Zee, were against. The local party ZEE is, among other things, afraid that it will drive away the organization and investors in Formula 1 because of the high costs.
The VVD, among others, voted for the tax. “After all, the costs incurred for events should not be passed on to the residents,” says Cisca Nederlof during the council meeting.
Dutch Grand Prix
The organization behind F1 has no choice but to accept the fun tax. “But Formula 1 has put Zandvoort on the world map, so we don’t understand why this has to be done now,” DGP spokesman Simon Keijzer said. earlier to know NH. The organization believes that it actually provides income for the municipality. “But a local government is allowed to do this. And we assume that it is well thought out and legally substantiated.”
The tax will be levied from next year. Earlier it became clear that Formula 1 will also be driven in Zandvoort in 2024 and 2025.