The water board in Amsterdam wants to impose more than half a billion euros in taxes this year

Amsterdam residents pay monthly for the use of drinking water, that is what Waternet is about. In addition, the water board tax must also be paid to the Water Board once a year. The tax pays for the water system, the waterways, the treatment of sewage water and you pay for surface water pollution.

The Water Board must ensure safe dikes, enough clean water in rivers, canals and ditches and the cleaning of sewage water. These activities are paid for through water board taxes. It is the only source of income for the Water Board. But with the start of Waternet’s new IT system in 2020, which collects taxes for the Water Board, something went wrong with sending the assessments.

As a result, the Water Board missed out on tax revenue for years and now has to catch up. There’s in there 2022 This has already started, but almost all assessments for 2021 will not have been sent until 2023. So now the assessments are still outstanding for three tax years: part of 2022, 2023 and 2024. This means that 511 million euros in overdue assessments still have to be imposed this year.

Three attacks on the mat?

The 2022 assessments have now been sent to 70 percent of residents, imposing 159 million euros. The remaining 30 percent of 2022 is still 65 million euros. According to a spokesperson for the Water Board, they are busy sending out those assessments.

But the Water Board wants to press ahead and clear the backlog as quickly as possible. That is why they will start sending out the assessments for 2023 in February. A total of 241 million euros must be imposed for that tax year. After the summer, the Water Board will start sending 205 million euros for this fiscal year.

It is therefore possible that some residents of the region will receive a water board tax assessment three times this year. “We understand that this is very annoying and we apologize for this. If residents or companies encounter payment problems, payment arrangements are possible. We try to find a suitable solution as much as possible,” said the spokesperson. “In addition, as a water board we have opted to implement the most generous remission policy possible within the legislation.”

Higher amount than previous years

For the current tax year (2024), the water board tax rates are with 35 percent increased, making the amount much higher than in previous years. According to the Water Board, this increase is necessary because the rates have been too low in recent years and the daily work of the water board has become significantly more expensive. Daily manager Simon Deurloo says that the Water Board ‘must become financially healthy again’. “Only in this way can we keep the measures necessary to protect our area against climate change affordable.”

Households in a rental house with two or more residents will increase this year from 323 euros to approximately 440 euros. For a family of four with an owner-occupied home, the price now rises above 500 euros. Those who live alone in a rented house paid around 200 euros last year, which will now be almost 270 euros. According to Deurloo, the increase must continue. “The reserves are almost empty. The increase is necessary to ensure that more than 1.4 million people can continue to live, work and relax here safely with sufficient and clean water.”

In July last year, AT5 spoke to Deurloo about the significant increase in the Water Board tax:

Catching up on backlogs

Waternet’s IT system now works well enough again for the Water Board to issue the overdue assessments. The Water Board expects that the majority of the assessments will have been sent by the beginning of next year.

At Waternet they have also been busy sending invoices for the costs of using drinking water that still had to be paid. Have this past year more than 30,000 customers received such an invoice from Waternet. The drinking water company still has to send a bill to 1 percent, around 8,000 households. After that, the invoicing will be completely equal again.