Home owners angry at surprise rise in home ownership tax

Home owners’ association VEH is urging the government to freeze the extra tax on home owners introduced at the beginning of this year.

The eigenwoningforfait is going up from 0.6% to 0.7% this year. This means home owners with a mortgage have to add 0.7% of the value of their homes to their annual income and pay income tax on it.

‘We should be doing all we can to ensure the housing market recovery continues,’ said VEH director Rob Mulder in a statement. ‘I am hopeful about the housing market in 2014, but the government should not keep springing surprises on us.’

The rise in the tax was not made public earlier and Christian Democrat MP Pieter Omtzigt said he is to ask housing minister Stef Blok about the issue.

‘In December we had a long debate about the housing market up to 2042 and now, two weeks later, it appears the owners’ tax is going up in 2014. I would call that not properly informing parliament,’ Omtzigt said.

According to the Telegraaf, Blok says the increase is not due to new policy but the annual rise and is an issue for the finance ministry. The tax increase is supposed to reflect rises in rents paid by social housing tenants.

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