Municipal taxes in the Netherlands: the yearly gemeente and waterschap bills, what renters pay, and how kwijtschelding works

Once you are registered at a Dutch address, two organisations send you tax bills every year. The gemeente (municipality) bills you for waste collection and the sewer, and bills homeowners for property tax. The waterschap (water board) bills you for dikes, water levels and cleaning waste water. The amounts differ per gemeente and per waterschap; for a couple renting in Amsterdam they add up to about €934 a year. These bills surprise many newcomers, because no one asks for them: they simply arrive, early in the year. This guide explains what each bill is for, which bills you pay as a renter, what the 2026 amounts look like in real cities, and how kwijtschelding (waiver) cancels most of them when your income is low. These are local taxes tied to your address. National income tax is a separate system, covered in the income tax guide.

Every gemeente chooses its own taxes and its own rates from a fixed legal list, published by Rijksoverheid (the central government). For charges that cover a service, such as waste collection, the gemeente may not raise more money than the service costs. These are the taxes a household meets:

The afvalstoffenheffing is the bill almost every household pays. It is charged per household, not per person, and most gemeentes use two or three rates by household size. In Amsterdam the 2026 rate is €352 for a person living alone and €469 for a household of two or more. Rotterdam uses three steps in 2026: €381.90 for one person, €457.50 for two, and €495.30 for three or more.

The rioolheffing works differently in each gemeente, so check who is billed where you live. Amsterdam bills the owner €192.04 in 2026 and bills users only above 300 m³ of waste water a year. Utrecht does the same: €247.27 for the owner, and a user part only above 250 m³. In those cities a renter gets no sewer bill unless the home discharges more water than that. Other gemeentes do bill the household. In Hoeksche Waard, for example, the 2026 user part is €72.13 for one person and €144.25 for two or more, next to an owner part of €144.25.

The OZB is simple for renters: you do not pay it for your home. Only the owner of a home pays OZB, calculated over the WOZ value. If an OZB assessment for your rented home lands in your name, it is a mistake, and you can object (bezwaar maken). The owner on 1 January pays for the whole year, even after selling the home later that year.

The hondenbelasting only exists in gemeentes that chose to keep it. Tilburg, for example, charges €132.28 for a first dog and €187.60 for a second dog in 2026. If you have a dog, search your gemeente's name plus 'hondenbelasting' to see whether the tax exists where you live and what it costs.

The Netherlands is divided into water boards: regional authorities that maintain dikes, control water levels and clean waste water. They levy their own taxes, separate from the gemeente, and each waterschap sets its own rates. The official rules are on Overheid.nl. A household pays two levies. The watersysteemheffing ingezetenen (water system levy for residents) is a fixed amount per home, paid by whoever lives there, renter or owner. The zuiveringsheffing (water treatment levy) pays for cleaning your waste water and is calculated in vervuilingseenheden (pollution units): a person living alone pays 1 unit, and every household of two or more pays 3 units. Two people pay the same as five. Owners pay a third levy on top, a percentage of the WOZ value.

Amsterdam's water board is Waterschap Amstel, Gooi en Vecht. In 2026 it charges €186.85 per home for the residents' levy and €92.79 per pollution unit. A renter living alone pays €279.64 a year. A renting couple pays €465.22, because a couple counts as 3 units. Rates differ per water board: Waterschap Rivierenland charges €147.39 per home and €76.28 per unit in 2026, so the same renting couple pays €376.23 there. The waterschap bill is not your drinking-water bill. Drinking water comes from a water company under a contract you choose, covered in the utilities guide.

So a couple renting in Amsterdam pays about €934 a year, or €78 a month, in address taxes. A person living alone pays about €632. Your own total will differ, because every gemeente and waterschap sets its own rates. The pattern repeats across the country: one waste charge, two waterschap levies, and in some gemeentes a user part of the sewer charge. Homeowners pay OZB, the owner part of the sewer charge and the owners' waterschap levy on top. For how these bills fit into a full monthly budget, see the cost of living guide.

The main assessments go out early in the year. Many gemeentes put all their charges on one combined assessment (gecombineerde aanslag): one letter with several taxes, usually together with the new WOZ value of the home. In some regions a shared tax office sends one assessment for the gemeente taxes and the waterschap taxes together. BSGR, the regional tax office for Leiden, Gouda, Katwijk and eight other gemeentes, delivered its 2026 combined assessments from 24 February. In other places, such as Amsterdam, the gemeente and the waterschap each send their own bill, so expect two envelopes.

You do not have to pay the whole amount at once. Check the payment options on your assessment. Rotterdam, for example, spreads the bill over 12 monthly instalments when you set up a direct debit (automatische incasso). Setting up the direct debit once is the easiest protection against forgotten deadlines: the arrangement renews every year by itself.

If you cannot pay these bills, the law provides a waiver, called kwijtschelding. A waiver means the bill is cancelled, fully or partly. You do not receive money; the bill itself disappears. Each gemeente and each waterschap decides which of its taxes qualify. In practice the waste charge and the household waterschap levies are the bills that matter, and together they are worth several hundred euros a year. Asking costs nothing.

You qualify when your income is at or below income-support level, meaning around the bijstand norm for your household, and you have almost no savings. The exact norms differ per organisation, and two rules cause most rejections. First, the savings cap is low. BghU, the tax office for Utrecht and its waterschap, allows at most €3,698 in savings for a single person and €4,903 for a couple in 2026. Rotterdam's kwijtschelding page allows €3,500 for a single person, €4,375 for a single parent and €4,750 for a couple. Amsterdam's water board counts your allowed maximum as a norm amount plus one month of rent and one month of health-insurance premium. Second, a car counts as an asset. A car worth more than €3,350 normally blocks the waiver, unless you need it for work or for a health condition. The Regionale Belasting Groep explains these rules in English and decides within 2 months.

If your income is slightly above the norm, a partial waiver is still possible. The gemeente then calculates what you can spare each year and expects 80% of that amount to go to the bill; the rest is waived. Kwijtschelding is separate from the national toeslagen system, and the two often apply to the same households: check the toeslagen overview and the huurtoeslag guide in the same sitting.

Apply with the organisation that sent the bill. If a shared regional office bills you, one application covers the taxes on that assessment. Where the gemeente and the waterschap bill separately, you apply twice: once with the gemeente and once with the waterschap. In Amsterdam, for example, the gemeente handles the waiver for its own bills, and you request the waterschap waiver at Amstel, Gooi en Vecht. Applications run online with DigiD; the DigiD guide covers getting one. AGV's online check first tells you whether you should apply with the waterschap, the gemeente, or both. Already paid? At AGV, BghU and RBG you can still request the waiver up to 3 months after your payment, and the money comes back if the waiver is granted.

Once a waiver is granted, it often renews by itself. AGV asks your permission to check your income data with other government organisations every year. As long as nothing changes, you keep the waiver without a new application. Say yes to that question: it removes a yearly form.

• Waste charge: in Amsterdam and Rotterdam, moving to another gemeente ends the charge, and the remaining full months of the year come back in twelfths. Moving within the same gemeente does not change the bill.
• Household size is fixed on 1 January. In Amsterdam and Rotterdam the number of people at the address on 1 January sets the waste-charge rate for the whole year. Someone moving in or out in March changes nothing until the next tax year.
• OZB: whoever owns the home on 1 January pays for the whole year. Selling or moving later in the year does not reduce the assessment.
• Moving in during the year: you owe the waste charge from the start of your use of the address, not for the months before. A bill that starts earlier than your move is wrong.
• Waterschap levies: check your own waterschap's site for its moving rules, and tell it your new address if you move to a different water board's area.

This usually means the previous residents never deregistered, or your own registration date is wrong. Your liability starts when you start using the address. Check the period and the household size printed on the assessment against your registration date. If they do not match, object: every assessment letter states how and before which date, and objecting is free. If the underlying problem is your registration itself, fix that first at the gemeente. The address registration guide covers wrong and refused registrations. The check works both ways: if no bill ever arrives at your address, check that your registration is correct.

The waste charge and the waterschap levies are charged per household, not per person. The assessment arrives in one resident's name, and that person owes the full amount. The others get no bill of their own. Agree the split in writing among housemates on the day the bill arrives, and let the named person set up the instalments. Every household of two or more counts as 3 pollution units for the treatment levy, so five housemates pay the same treatment levy as a couple. Split five ways, it is a small amount per person.

Unpaid local taxes grow through a fixed chain, with costs added at each step. Rotterdam's collection chain shows the pattern: first a free reminder (herinnering) with 2 more weeks to pay, then a formal demand (aanmaning) that adds €10 or €22, then an enforcement order (dwangbevel) that adds at least €56, and finally seizure of wages, benefits or your bank account. Other gemeentes set their own amounts for these steps. Act at the reminder stage: pay, ask for a payment arrangement (betalingsregeling), or apply for kwijtschelding. In Rotterdam a rejected waiver application can turn into a payment arrangement; ask for it in the same reply.

The asset check looks at what is on your bank accounts and at what you own. The common rejection reasons: savings just above the cap, and a car worth more than €3,350. Rotterdam's automatic check also stops at any car under 9 years old. If the car is essential, say so and prove it: the exception for work or a health condition exists, but you must claim it, with evidence such as an employer's statement or a medical letter. If savings caused the rejection, note that the caps sit only a few thousand euros above zero. A balance that is briefly high, for example just after salary or holiday pay arrives, can decide the outcome, and you may apply again when your situation changes. A rejection is not the end: ask for a payment arrangement in the same reply.

These address bills are one corner of your yearly money admin. The cost of living guide puts them next to rent, energy and groceries. The utilities guide covers the energy and water contracts you choose yourself. And if these bills strain your budget, the toeslagen overview shows the four national benefits that add money every month.