Individuals can in principle get a waiver if they earn less than 1250 euro net per month, don’t have more than 1700 euro of savings and don’t have a car that is younger than 10 years – conditions that most students easily meet.
Anouk Caelr and Jasmijn Bovenstad (both 18), first-year students in the bachelor’s European Studies, have however never seen the letter. Both live in student rooms in Maastricht. Legal expert Rick Blezer from the Huurteam Zuid-Limburg, an advice centre for people with rental problems, has an explanation: “If you live in a student room, the bill goes straight to the landlord, who then can send it to his renters. In some cases however, the landlord includes the bill in the monthly rent or the service costs. That is not how it’s supposed to be. But renters of student rooms can’t apply for a waiver anyway, because the bill is on the name of the landlord.”
Juul Bischofs (23) on the other hand, second-year student in the bachelor’s European Studies, would have got an exemption if she knew about it at the time, being a former tenant of a studio. She found the letter in her mailbox last year and decided to pay. Retroactively, she can’t get a waiver anymore as the maximum period to claim back already payed taxes is three months.