“If I have to pay, I close things,” says Jan Borst (78) of the coffee and tea museum ‘De Klokgevel’ in Steenbergen. He holds the courage in it while there is something gnawing on him under the skin. The municipality wants him to pay advertising tax because the name of his museum is on the window. Jan refuses ‘from principle’ to pull his wallet for this. According to him, small museums are generally exempt from these kinds of taxes.
“Look these are the culprits,” says Jan as he points to the ornamental letters on the ‘shop window name’ of his museum. “I don’t understand why I should pay for that. This is a museum, isn’t it the uncertainty about the future in your head. At first I was awake about it, but now I am over it.”
For ten years, Jan has had his coffee and tea museum in the picturesque building from 1730 on the Kaaistraat in the center of Steenbergen. In the course of half a century he has collected a unique collection.
Upon entering the museum, a platte tube stove immediately catches the eye, with an antique coffee roaster on it. “In this way, people used to burn their coffee themselves. The roasted beans had to be ground at the grocer,” Jan explains.
“We have about three hundred coffee grinders, eighty tea compounds and seven thousand packaging.”
The cupboards on the upper and ground floor of the museum are filled with packs of coffee and tea from all over the world. Some packaging is more than eighty years old. Such as a pack of ‘Hotel Moutkoffie’ from 1941. “There was no coffee in the war, so wheat and barley were keen to make coffee.”
The clock façade attracts dozens of visitors from all over the country every week. “Enthusiasts look their eyes out of this. We have about three hundred coffee grinders, eighty tea pussies and seven thousand packaging of coffee and tea. Last week we still had visitors from Zwolle. You will not find this in any other place in the Netherlands,” says Jan Vluig.
A tax assessment of fifteen hundred euros now threatens to spoil his pleasure. Jan has to pay retroactively in three years of façade tax before 1 December.
“The museum is a crowd puller, both the community and the hospitality industry in Steenbergen benefit from this.”
“I am not even concerned with the amount because I can still raise that. But a library or hospital with a name on the facade does not have to pay? People pay an entrance fee, but I just just come out of the costs. The museum is a crowd puller, both the community and the Horeca in Steenbergen benefits from this.”
Alderman Nadir Baali van Steenbergen understands the frustration of Jan. “I have a warm heart for the museum, but I can’t make an exception for Jan. I want to look at the criteria of our regulations again. The clock façade is not helped by that,” said Baali.
In the meantime, the alderman is happy to participate in a ‘creative solution’. For that, Jan would have to turn his private museum into a so -called ANBI institution (public benefit institution ed.). Alderman Baali: “I have found people willing who want to help him with that. The museum can be eligible for a subsidy with which the bills can be paid. An additional advantage is that continuity is also arranged.”
Jan still has to see if, given his age, this will all work. “Otherwise I will remove everything here and I will save it in the shed. Then we will hold an exhibition there. I hope it doesn’t have to come to that. At least I will not remove the letters.”
It will soon be clear whether the coffee is drunk as hot as it is poured. Alderman Baali expects to be able to say more about this ‘within a few weeks’.
Waiting for privacy settings …