As you stumble from bed today, bleary-eyed but full of hope (or terror) for the year ahead, the Netherlands is greeting you with a slew of changes.
From taxes to vaping, here’s what to expect in the shiny, full-of-promise and not-yet-tainted year that is 2024, according to the NOS.
Flavoured vapes are banned
Love your Strawberry Dream vape? You’ll need to find a new outlet in 2024. Flavoured e-cigarettes are now banned from being sold in the Netherlands.
The ban applies to both retail stores and webshops. The government hopes that only offering tobacco flavours will discourage young people from vaping.
30% ruling adjusted
Yep, the 30% ruling, which gave highly skilled and eligible expats 30% of their income tax-free for five years, is gone as we know it.
Instead, the amount will be reduced to 30% for the first 20 months, 20% for the following 20 months, and then 10% for the final 20 months.
A hotline to tattle on your dodgy landlord is here
Are you being charged €1600 a month for a leaky cardboard box? There’s a hotline for that!
As of today, every municipality is required to have a hotline to field complaints about landlords. (We hope they’re staffed with hundreds of employees, because this is an epidemic).
You can call the hotline for things like ridiculous rental costs, discrimination, intimidation, deposits that are too high, crazy service fees, or not complying with obligations.
Housing and child allowances increase, others stop
Government allowances are going through some big changes.
If you receive the childcare allowance (kinderopvangtoeslag), the child-related budget (kindgebonden budget), or the housing allowance (huurtoeslag), congratulations! You’ll get more money.
As an extra bonus, more people will become eligible for the housing allowance and the child-related budget.
However, for those receiving the healthcare allowance (zorgtoeslag), this amount is being reduced. It was temporarily increased in 2023 to combat high inflation but is now being returned to its normal level.
Meanwhile, the energy allowance will disappear, and the Temporary Emergency Energy Fund (for if you are on a low income and have a high energy bill) will remain.
Wealth tax increases
Got some nice savings in your bank account? Congratulations, you now pay even more money for it!
The tax on savings, shares, and other assets will increase from 32 to 36 percent. Luckily, this only applies to amounts over €57,000.
Minimum wage rises
The minimum wage has risen to €13.27 per hour. However, more changes are coming into effect.
While minimum wages were previously calculated monthly, it’s now calculated hourly. That removes the disadvantage some people had when they were required to work 40 hours to be considered full-time, compared to people who had to work 36 hours.
Buying a house changes
If 2024 is the year that you’ll finally buy a house in the Netherlands, good news! (Except for those rising house costs, of course).
The National Mortgage Guarantee, which pays your residual debt to the bank if you suddenly can’t afford your house and need to sell it at a loss, now applies to houses up to €435,000. In 2023, you could only use it for houses sold for under €405,000.
READ MORE | Is now the time to buy a house in the Netherlands? Here’s what the mortgage experts say
That’s not all that’s changing. People buying energy-efficient homes can borrow more money as a reward.
If you buy a house with a low energy label, you can also borrow extra money, but it has to be spent on energy-saving measures.
Meanwhile, are you single? Then you can now borrow an extra €16,000 for your mortgage, as long as your salary is €28,000 or more.
READ MORE | 5 major mortgage changes hitting the Netherlands in 2024
Tax on soft drinks, juice, oat milk, and 0% beer increase
Drink water, team! The tax on the above drinks will increase from almost 9 cents per litre to 26 cents per litre, in a government effort to make soft drinks less appealing.
So why is oat milk in there too? Well, it’s a bit contentious, but dairy and soy drinks are exempt from the consumption tax because they have a high protein content — even though they can also contain a lot of sugar.
Energy price cap ends
The price ceiling that previously worked to limit to damage of soaring energy costs will be abolished. That’s because energy rates have now reduced again to approximately the price ceiling.
Are you scared of energy costs rising again? In that case, you can take a fixed-rate contract with your energy provider.
But beware: if they drop further, you’ll be stuck paying the old rate!
Kids can have a double surname
And a final big change for the Netherlands: children can now have not one, but TWO surnames!
Up until this year, children born in the Netherlands could only have their mother or their fathers last name.
That means a child named Ella, born to Jason Derulo and Miley Cyrus, could only be named Ella Derulo or Ella Cyrus.
As of today, Ella Derulo-Cyrus or Ella Cyrus-Derulo can also be born!
This change can also be retroactively applied as far back as 2016.
What change affects you the most? Tell us in the comments below!
I don’t understand the hyphen between the two surnames. 2 surnames is 2 surnames. Same as if your name is Paul Alexander you write it without hyphen.