Thursday 24 March 2011

Learning Dutch (6): Taxes (1)

From Coisas Minhas


A month after our arrival in The Netherlands, we received a letter from Tricijn.
I understood it was something related with taxes [belasting].The amount [bedrag] was quite high. As I was not familiar with the taxes in the Netherlands, I knocked at my neighbours door to ask Bas about it. He explained to me what kind of taxes we were talking about and then I went home to translate the letter.
...

Let's see this year's letter, it's easier...;-)

After confirming my aanslagnummer [fiscal number/número fiscal] and my address through the betreft object [referente a/refering to], I checked all the main points of the Aanslagbiljet [tax statement/folha de impostos]:

dagtekening [date/data]: 25.01.2011
heffingperiode [refering period/período a que diz respeito]:01.01.2011 t/m 31.12.2011
belastingjaar [fiscal year/ano fiscal]: 2011
vervaldatum [payment deadline/data limite de vencimento]: 25.03.2011

We have two months to betalen [to pay/pagar]. In our case, a bedrag [an amount/total] of €254,94.

How did they come to this value? By a berekening [calculation/cálculo] that I shall explain now.
...

In fact, we are paying two taxes: the watersysteemheffing ingezetenen and the Zuiveringsheffing.

1.The watersysteemheffing ingezetenen

As far as I understood, this one is related to the dijken [dams/diques] maintenance and repairs to avoid overstromingen [floods/inundações] and keep the zeespiegel [sea level/nível do mar] or the waterpeil [water level/nível da água] at safe levels.

For this one, we pay €73,53.

I'm sharing this with you because in Portugal we don't have this specific tax and if you are thinking about moving here it's useful to be aware of this.

2.The Zuiveringsheffing

This one is similar to our taxa de saneamento básico [sanitary taxes].
Zuivering means "purification" or "purificação".
This tax is to take care of the afvalwater [waste waters/águas residuais] and the riolen [sewers/esgotos].
If there is only one person in the household, we pay €60,47.
If there are 2 or more persons in the household, we pay 3 bedrag per vervuilingseenheid [unitary pollution cost/custo unitário de poluição]. The total is €181,41. It's our case.

That means that the bedrag van de aanslag, or the total amount, is €254,94.

During this period, we are more careful with our expenses, but we don't mind. In our opinion, the taxes are well spent.

9 comments:

Castles Crowns and Cottages said...

IF your dollars are well spent and you are able to benefit from that, then YIPEE!!! We here in the U.S. are suspicious of where our dollars go....high taxes, and a shortage of resources...how are you dearest? ENJOY A LOVELY EVENING, Anita

Presépio no Canal said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Presépio no Canal said...

Anita, I feel the same way about my country. We pay a lot of taxes and the money is not spent in the proper way. The budgets are always wrong, with huge mistakes, etc, etc...
At least, here, in the NL, I can see where the money is spent: the streets are cleaned, the buildings are well preserved and I don't see beggars in the streets as I saw so many times in Lisbon, etc, etc...
I'm ok, dear one. I hope you are doing fine, too :-)
Veel kusjes!! :-) Hugs!

Unknown said...

I hope this will be useful for any new comer in the NL, Sandra, very well explained.
Do you have the possibility of paying this tax(es) in installments with your water management company? Here in Zwartewaterland we do.

Presépio no Canal said...

Aledys, with Tricijn it is not possible, I'm afraid. :-(
I generally say that this tax is a flight ticket to Portugal...;-) It's what I use to pay for it.
There is another tax that costs more "two flight tickets to Portugal". Very soon, I will talk about it too.
For this one, yes, we can pay in two installments.
Besos!

Citizen_Stu said...

I'm so happy that my father in law is good with tax stuff and helps us sort it out. I hate doing it.

Presépio no Canal said...

Hi, Stu, I don't like it either...so glad to hear that you have your father in law's help.
In the first year, we needed to pay for professional help with IRS. We were afraid to do it alone. Our Dutch was 50 words by the time :-))
Even now, we must be very careful with it because of ours limited language skills.

bikim said...

Bem! é inevitável fazermos umas figurinhas e sobretudo ficarmos aflitos! não há nada como sabermos a língua nem que seja a dizer "me querer bananas"!! principalmente compreende-los! já para não falar que é burrice não aproveitar a oportunidade para aprender! pois! posso dizer-te que das 20 familias portuguesas que estiveram na alemanha por 6 anos (nós estivemos 2) nenhuma das mulheres aprendeu alemão ! pois eu assim que consegui atirei-me ao curso e voltei a falar fluentemente e sobretudo a entende-los, mesmo quando diziam mal dos portugueses e eu fingia não perceber só para ver a cara deles quando respondia em alemão que sou portuguesa e não espanhola com orgulho! era ve-los ficarem roxos de raiva quando em seguida lhes dizia na linguazinha deles que era a mesma coisa que dizer que eles eram polacos e não alemães!!!! bem ! o gozo que me dava!
por isso, levamos umas e damos outras! Boa?!!
bjs,
Rosa

Presépio no Canal said...

Bikim LOLOLOL o que ri neste bocadinho...reconheci as situacoes todas ;-)) Bedankt! ;-))