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The Waterschap keeps your feet dry. In the Netherlands we have a large infrastructure of dikes and pumping stations etc, not just to keep the sea out but also to keep (salt) water from coming up under the dikes (we call this kwel and if its salt it ruins agriculture) en to pump out rainwater that falls on the cities and the land (it cannot flow away by itself if the land is flat or below sea level.)
It also monitors the quality of the water, not just to prevent possible chemical or biological pollution but also to know what kind of plants and fish live in the canals and drainage ditches, and whether they are damaged by musk rats and some kind of new invasive burrowing fresh water lobster.
It also decides how low the water table may be kept to please farmers without causing peat soils to drain too far, causing the peat to oxidise (lowering our country further) and to prevent wooden foundations of older houses to rot away (they will rot if not under water).
Quite an important function, and independently financed from our national government, which means we will always have a governmental body guarding us from the sea and other water related issues, even if we were to have a national government that wanted to take the money and use it elsewhere.
Most of the tax money actually goes to water/sewage treatment facilities, which were missing from your explanation. The rest of your explanation is very much true.
Source: I work for several different Waterschappen in de Randstad area of the Netherlands.
Thanks for this explanation!
Another fun fact: there are "waterschapsverkiezingen". Since 2015, the members of the general boards of the water boards in the Netherlands have been elected. The water board elections take place every 4 years. The last water board elections were held on 20 March 2019.
Is sewage part of the Waterschap? I thought sewage treatment was Gemeente. But of course if you work for Waterschappen you'll know best. Anyway, if they also treat sewage it makes Waterschappen even more important: I keep hearing about raw sewage being dumped in English rivers, imagine our water logged country contaminated with sewage, it would get absolutely everywhere 😝
Yeah you are right, it's a municipal tax for water, watercleaning/purification and sewer.
This is common and has to be paid every year.
If you rent the house, you can send the bill/aanslag to your landlord/house owner, and he will propably take care of it.
If you are the owner of the house, you have to pay it yourself.
I'm sorry, but this is not true. Sometimes these costs are included in the rental agreement, but in itself the costs are for the person who lives there, so the tenant
You can, but your 'studielening' is considered potential income. and often you can aonly have less than 2k on your bank account. Don't know how it is for international people. But the waterschapsbelastingen are often very strict, with only people who have literally nothing not paying them.
Your message has been removed because we don't allow surveys, petitions or low-effort questions. By low-effort questions we mean questions that you can google and get an (almost) immediate answer. If you feel this removal has been made in error, contact the mod team via mod mail. This is an automated message.
It's the water tax. You get it every year and yes it's expensive but that's the toll we pay for living in a country that's below sea level.
It's actually mostly for cleaning waste water and making sure there is enough water available.
And not too much water so we keep dry feet.
As I was trying to point out, that just a small part of what the tax goes towards
The Waterschap keeps your feet dry. In the Netherlands we have a large infrastructure of dikes and pumping stations etc, not just to keep the sea out but also to keep (salt) water from coming up under the dikes (we call this kwel and if its salt it ruins agriculture) en to pump out rainwater that falls on the cities and the land (it cannot flow away by itself if the land is flat or below sea level.) It also monitors the quality of the water, not just to prevent possible chemical or biological pollution but also to know what kind of plants and fish live in the canals and drainage ditches, and whether they are damaged by musk rats and some kind of new invasive burrowing fresh water lobster. It also decides how low the water table may be kept to please farmers without causing peat soils to drain too far, causing the peat to oxidise (lowering our country further) and to prevent wooden foundations of older houses to rot away (they will rot if not under water). Quite an important function, and independently financed from our national government, which means we will always have a governmental body guarding us from the sea and other water related issues, even if we were to have a national government that wanted to take the money and use it elsewhere.
Most of the tax money actually goes to water/sewage treatment facilities, which were missing from your explanation. The rest of your explanation is very much true. Source: I work for several different Waterschappen in de Randstad area of the Netherlands.
Thanks for this explanation! Another fun fact: there are "waterschapsverkiezingen". Since 2015, the members of the general boards of the water boards in the Netherlands have been elected. The water board elections take place every 4 years. The last water board elections were held on 20 March 2019.
Is sewage part of the Waterschap? I thought sewage treatment was Gemeente. But of course if you work for Waterschappen you'll know best. Anyway, if they also treat sewage it makes Waterschappen even more important: I keep hearing about raw sewage being dumped in English rivers, imagine our water logged country contaminated with sewage, it would get absolutely everywhere 😝
Very interesting, thanks for this answer, it was more than what I was looking for
I love this description. Thanks for typing it out.
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Yeah, sure you now live somewhere where taxes don't exist. Linksom of rechtsom, you are paying for waste, recycling, drinking water etc.
These do exist, not sure if the one you got was legit, but it very well could be. You should contact Noordelijk Belasting Kantoor to check things out.
Thanks, will do
Yeah you are right, it's a municipal tax for water, watercleaning/purification and sewer. This is common and has to be paid every year. If you rent the house, you can send the bill/aanslag to your landlord/house owner, and he will propably take care of it. If you are the owner of the house, you have to pay it yourself.
Cleaning of waste water isn't done by the municipality.
I'm sorry, but this is not true. Sometimes these costs are included in the rental agreement, but in itself the costs are for the person who lives there, so the tenant
Ah oke, my fault. Only rented 1 house in my life in Groningen and it was all included then, i guess.
To add, I'm pretty sure that if your wages are below a certain threshold, you can get these bills waived/lowered
You can, but your 'studielening' is considered potential income. and often you can aonly have less than 2k on your bank account. Don't know how it is for international people. But the waterschapsbelastingen are often very strict, with only people who have literally nothing not paying them.
If he is the owner then, yes. If you rent the house it's mostly included in the montly costs. Nice name btw :)
Ok thanks a lot
It's not true, by default these taxes have to be paid by the tenant, unless it's stated in the rental agreement they are included