Figures from Statistics Netherlands (CBS) show that households contributed almost two-thirds to the more than 25 billion euros in environmental taxes and charges collected by the Dutch government in 2016. This is 3 percent more than they received in 2015.

Energy and vehicle taxes increase

20,7 billion euros was acquired by the environmental tax. This tax is placed on, amongst other things, fuel use, tap water, flights, energy consumption and possession and use of vehicles.

The 20,7 billions euros can be broken down into:

• Fuel duty- 8,1 billion euros
• Vehicle tax- 5,6 billion euros
• Energy tax- 5 billion euros
• BPM-1,6 billion euros
• Other environmental taxes- 0,6 billion euros

Of the environmental taxes, energy tax has increased the most compared to 2015, namely 10,7 percent. The BPM Tax applies to new private vehicles (cars and motorbikes) and this rose by 6,1 in 2016. The BPM paid by households in 2016 was 28 percent more than it was in 2015. This is partly due to the tightening of CO2 limits for petrol and diesel cars, and the increase of fees for the three categories with the highest CO2 emissions.

4,6 billion euros was collected from environmental charges. Waste collection services, noise charges for civil aviation, groundwater levies and sewage and water pollution levies all fall under these charges.

In 2016 a tax exemption was placed on coal used to create electricity. The amount of money that coal tax thus gathered was a mere 3 billion euros compared to 2015’s 195 billion euros.

Other Dutch taxes rising at a faster rate

Of the total sum of tax in the Netherlands, the percentage constituting environmental tax has decreased in the past five years. In 2011 the percentage of tax brought in by environmental tax was 17,1 and in 2016 this was 15,3 percent.

See here (in Dutch) for a more detailed overview of the figures.