According to councilor Hester van Buren (Finance), the intention is for the clubs to be fully compensated for the precario assessments they have received.
The problem will also be solved ‘structurally’ from next year: sports clubs will no longer have to pay precario. “We never intended to saddle sports clubs with extra costs,” says Van Buren.
On Monday it emerged that dozens of sports clubs in the city are faced with the increased precario – the annual tax that the municipality levies on terraces in the city. Small clubs, which are only active for a few months a year, sometimes received assessments of thousands of euros. Many of those clubs never had to pay precario before.
About thirty sports clubs in the city have received the assessment, which will be levied retroactively from 2023. Other non-commercial institutions were also confronted with high amounts. For example, social organization Civic in East has to pay more than 13,000 euros for the terrace at its community center on the Kramatplantsoen.
Civil society
The municipality cannot say how many social organizations have received a precario assessment. “If there are social organizations that think the assessment is incorrect, they can report or object to taxes,” says Van Buren. “We will look at it again and apply tailor-made solutions if necessary.” It is still unclear whether this means that social organizations can also expect financial compensation.
In 2018, the previous council decided to increase the terrace tax. The rates were made dependent on the pressure on public space: a terrace in a busy place, such as in a large part of Center and South, has to be paid more than a terrace in South East or New West, for example.
The municipality decided to implement the changes gradually over two years, resulting in a price increase in 2020 and 2021. But due to the corona measures, the precario was waived in 2020, 2021 and 2022. As a result, the increase decided in 2019 is only now noticeable.
In addition, the municipality’s tax administration has been updated in the meantime. The municipality has a better idea of where there are terraces in the city and how big they are. For this reason, some terraces subject to precario only came into the picture this year.
The increased rates led to shocked reactions among catering bosses two weeks ago. For some of them, the amount to be paid tripled compared to the last time the tax had to be paid, in 2019. In total, the municipality has imposed 2,500 precario assessments this year. So far, 120 objections have been received.
About the author: Madelief van Dongen is a news reporter for Het Parool. She writes about all kinds of Amsterdam topics, from tourist policy to squatted buildings, and reports live on events in the city.
Tags: Sports clubs receive full compensation municipality terrace tax ten thousands euros
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