Dutch court rejects indexation method for property tax valuations

The Zeeland-West-Brabant District Court has ruled that tax officials cannot determine property values (WOZ-values) solely by applying indexation and depreciation corrections to previous years' values. According to the court, the Law on Valuation of Immovable Property (Wet WOZ) requires that residential property values be determined through a systematic comparison with properties for which market data is available.

In a specific case involving a detached house, the tax official had proposed values for 2022, 2023, and 2024 ranging from €532,000 to €637,000 based on tax matrices. The homeowner contested these, arguing for a value of €475,000. Because the court rejected the official's methodology but found the homeowner's proposed value lacked sufficient evidence, the court set the values at €510,000 for 2022, €517,000 for 2023, and €525,000 for 2024.