The North Holland District Court has ruled that the “Villa tax” does not violate the ECHR.
Objection(?)
In our article Objection to villa tax? we explain what the Villa tax entails. We indicate that people who own a (taxable) owner-occupied home with a WOZ value of more than €1,310,000 (2024, different limit amounts apply for other years) would be wise to file a pro forma objection to their income tax assessment.
The advice to object remains unchanged. After all, we will not know for sure whether the villa tax violates the ECHR until the Supreme Court has had its say. We will have to wait a long time for that verdict.
Excessive
The court considered that with the owner-occupied home lump sum, the legislator included two things in the taxation. On the one hand, the pleasure of living and, on the other hand, the development of the value of the home (investment aspect). In doing so, the legislator remains within its discretionary margin and taxpayers are not faced with an excessive burden at system level.
Individually, the taxpayers who brought the case are also not unduly burdened, the court said. For that, the taxpayers' entire financial situation matters. Among other things, the court noted that the income in box 1 was over €150,000. There is no individual excessive burden.
To be continued for sure!