Three rules for every letter
- Find the date on the letter. The deadline to object (bezwaar) is almost always 6 weeks from that date, not from the day you opened it. Put it in your calendar the day the letter arrives.
- Find the payment date. Objecting does not always stop the bill. If you cannot pay, ask for a payment plan (betalingsregeling) before that date, not after the reminder.
- Check it is real. Log in with DigiD to Mijn Belastingdienst, Mijn toeslagen, Mijn DUO or the CJIB site: a real assessment or fine is there too. The Belastingdienst never sends a direct payment link, and the CJIB never emails, texts or WhatsApps you about a fine.
At a glance
| Letter | Deadline | Usual action |
|---|---|---|
| Voorlopige aanslag | Monthly instalments | Change it online if wrong |
| Definitieve aanslag | Pay within 6 weeks; object within 6 weeks | Pay, or object |
| Toeslagen terugvordering | Pay or start the plan within 6 weeks; object within 6 weeks | 24-month plan, or object |
| CAK, not insured | 3 months to insure | Take out insurance, or ask the SVB to check |
| CJIB traffic fine (M) | Pay within 8 weeks; appeal within 6 weeks | Pay, or appeal |
| CJIB strafbeschikking (O) | 14 days to object | Pay, or verzet without paying |
| WOZ and municipal taxes | Object within 6 weeks | Check the value, pay by instalments |
| BTW after KvK | Return by the end of the month after each quarter | File, even a nil return |
| DUO | Object within 6 weeks | Pay, or ask for a lower amount |
Voorlopige aanslag (provisional tax assessment)
An estimate of your income tax. You get one during the year, for example when you asked the Belastingdienst to pay out a tax credit monthly or have income without payroll tax, or after you file your return, showing what you will get back or pay before the final check.
- Paying: in one go or in monthly instalments, at most 11 in the current year. If fewer than 2 months are left in the year, the whole amount is due within 6 weeks.
- If it is wrong: you cannot object to a voorlopige aanslag. Change it instead in Mijn Belastingdienst, with your new expected income. A low estimate now means a bill later.
Not sure what your yearly tax should be? The salary calculator shows the income tax and tax credits on your gross salary.
Definitieve aanslag (final tax assessment) and bezwaar
The Belastingdienst's final word on your tax return. It can differ from the voorlopige aanslag and from what you filed, often because tax credits (heffingskortingen) were paid out during the year and turned out too high.
- Pay within 6 weeks of the date on the assessment. Interest (invorderingsrente, 4.3% in 2026) runs if you pay late.
- Object within 6 weeks of the same date, online with DigiD, with the form Bezwaar particulieren, or by letter with the objection template below. Include the assessment number (aanslagnummer) and copies, never originals.
- While you object, you get a delay of payment for the disputed part only, and interest can still run on it. Pay the rest on time.
- Missed the 6 weeks? You can still ask for a reduction (verzoek om vermindering).
- Cannot pay? The standard payment plan is online with DigiD: up to 12 months, at least €20 a month, for debts up to €100,000. Ask before the payment date. It does not cover a voorlopige aanslag for the current year.
Toeslagen terugvordering (allowance repayment)
Once the Belastingdienst knows your real income, it sends a final calculation (definitieve berekening) of your huurtoeslag, zorgtoeslag or childcare allowance. For 2025 it arrives after 1 July 2026. If you received too much, the repayment is in that same calculation, and a separate letter explains how to pay.
- Small amounts are waived: on a final calculation received in 2026, you repay nothing if the amount is €121 or less, per allowance.
- Standard payment plan: pay the first instalment within 6 weeks and a plan of up to 24 months starts automatically, at least €20 a month. Since 1 January 2026 interest of 4.3% applies.
- Cannot afford that? Apply for a personal payment plan (persoonlijke betalingsregeling), online or with the form. Toeslagen looks at your income, assets, costs and debts, decides within 8 weeks, and you pay nothing while it decides.
- Think it is wrong? Object within 6 weeks with the form Bezwaar definitieve berekening toeslag, by post to Dienst Toeslagen, Postbus 4510, 6401 JA Heerlen. Email is not accepted. For an allowance in the current year you do not object: you pass on the change in Mijn toeslagen.
To avoid the next repayment, update your income estimate in Mijn toeslagen as soon as it changes, and do not guess low. Check what you should get with the huurtoeslag calculator and the zorgtoeslag part of the health insurance calculator.
CAK letters
The CAK sends three kinds of letter. Read the heading to see which one you have.
You are not health insured
Everyone who lives or works in the Netherlands and is covered by the Wlz (long-term care act) must take out Dutch basic health insurance. If the CAK finds no policy, it writes to you.
- First letter: you have 3 months to take out insurance, or to show you do not need it.
- First fine of €529.74 in 2026, paid to the CJIB. It is cancelled automatically if your policy started within those 3 months.
- Second fine of the same amount if you are still not insured 3 months later.
- The CAK insures you with a policy you cannot cancel for 12 months, and takes a premium of €172.70 a month (2026) from your salary or benefit.
Insure within 4 months of arriving and your cover starts from day one; you never pay premium backwards for the months you were not insured, but you pay any medical costs from that time yourself. Compare policies and zorgtoeslag with the health insurance calculator.
Think you do not need Dutch insurance, for example because you work for a foreign employer or only study here? Ask the SVB for a Wlz investigation (onderzoek Wlz) in Mijn SVB within 3 months of the first CAK letter. You get no fine while it runs, which can take 8 weeks. If you were not Wlz-insured, the CAK cancels the fine and refunds what you paid. Disagree with a fine itself? Object to the CAK within 6 weeks, by form or letter, not by phone. The CAK line for uninsured people is 0800 5028, or +31 88 711 5989 from abroad.
Contribution for care (eigen bijdrage Wlz or Wmo)
If you or a relative receive long-term care or home support, the CAK bills a contribution based on income and assets from two years earlier: 2024 for 2026. You can object within 6 weeks.
Contribution taken from a Dutch pension abroad
People who live in another country and receive a Dutch pension or benefit can be covered by Dutch care through a treaty. The CAK then takes a monthly healthcare contribution from the pension or benefit and sends a yearly statement. This rarely applies while you live here.
CJIB fine
The CJIB collects fines for other bodies. Look at the top right of the letter: M means a minor traffic fine (Mulder), with no criminal record; O means a strafbeschikking from the Openbaar Ministerie.
- M, pay: within 8 weeks. Then a free reminder gives 2 more weeks. After that the first aanmaning raises the fine to 1.5 times the original, and the second to 3 times. Then come bank seizures, bailiffs and, for repeated non-payment, taking your licence or vehicle.
- M, appeal: within 6 weeks of the date the letter was sent, to the officier van justitie (Parket CVOM), online through Digitaal Loket Verkeer or with the appeal template. You do not have to pay while the officier decides. Only a later appeal to the kantonrechter needs the fine paid first.
- O, object: you have 14 days from when you knew about it to file verzet, and you must not pay: paying means you accept it. Follow the instructions on the letter.
- Payment plan: possible online when the total is €75 or more, in 3 to 36 instalments depending on the amount. Not once a bailiff is involved, or while your appeal runs.
WOZ-beschikking and municipal taxes
Every year, usually in February, the gemeente sends the WOZ value of your home together with the bill for municipal taxes. The 2026 value is what the home could have sold for on 1 January 2025.
- Check the value. The valuation report (taxatieverslag) is free on MijnOverheid with DigiD. Compare it with recent sales of similar homes nearby.
- Object within 6 weeks of the date on the decision. It is free. Since 2024, costs awarded on a successful objection go to you, not to a no-cure-no-pay bureau, and you pay the bureau yourself.
- Tenants: the WOZ value counts towards the maximum rent of social and mid-rent homes. You can ask the gemeente for the decision. Check what it does to your rent with the rent points calculator.
- The tax bill: most gemeenten let you pay in monthly instalments by direct debit. On a low income you can ask for exemption (kwijtschelding). You have no legal right to a payment plan.
BTW letters after a KvK registration
Register a business at the KvK and within about 10 working days the Belastingdienst sends 2 letters: one with your VAT ID (btw-id), for your invoices, and one with your VAT tax number (omzetbelastingnummer), for your returns. From then on you file a VAT return every period, usually each quarter, even if you earned nothing. This is where surprise bills come from.
- Deadline: return and payment by the end of the month after the quarter. For the third quarter of 2026 that is 31 October 2026.
- Late or missing return: a fine of €82, after a 7-day grace period.
- Naheffingsaanslag: if you did not file, the Belastingdienst estimates the VAT with fixed amounts, which can be thousands of euros. File the missing return in Mijn Belastingdienst Zakelijk, even a nil return; the assessment is then reduced to the VAT you really owe plus the fine. Object within 6 weeks only if it is still wrong.
- Small turnover? With at most €20,000 a year you can join the small business scheme (KOR) and stop filing. Apply at least 4 weeks before the quarter it should start, and keep filing until you get the start date.
- Stopped or never started? Deregister at the KvK, which passes it on to the Belastingdienst.
Freelancing next to your job? See what you keep after VAT and tax with the ZZP calculator.
DUO
DUO sends letters about student finance and the integration loan. After you finish studying you get 2 years before repayment starts, on 1 January. The integration loan is repaid from 6 months after you finish integrating; DUO sends a letter when it starts.
- Monthly amount too high? DUO can lower it to what you can afford based on income. Under the oldest loan rules you ask for this yourself in Mijn DUO. If you live abroad, you send your income yourself each year.
- Object within 6 weeks of the date on a decision. You cannot object to a reminder or an aanmaning.
- Not paying: a reminder, then an aanmaning (€9 on arrears up to €500), then DUO hands the debt to the CJIB, which can send a bailiff. From then on you cannot agree a plan with DUO.
Questions about the exam itself are in the inburgering guide.
Aanmaning, dwangbevel, beslag: the escalation
An unpaid Belastingdienst assessment escalates in fixed steps, each adding costs (2026 amounts):
- Betalingsherinnering (reminder): free, 10 more days to pay.
- Aanmaning (formal demand): €10 on a debt under €454, otherwise €22. 2 more weeks.
- Dwangbevel (enforcement order): €56 plus €5 for every full €45 above the first €45, for example €271 on €2,000. 2 more days.
- Beslag (seizure): money taken from your bank account, salary or benefit without your consent.
You can object to the costs of an aanmaning or dwangbevel, not to the tax itself at that point; that needed an objection to the assessment. The fastest way out at any step is to pay or ask for a payment plan. Other bodies follow similar ladders: the CJIB with fine increases, DUO by handing the debt to the CJIB.
Reply templates
Short, generic letters in formal Dutch. Replace everything in square brackets and leave out what does not apply. Use the body's online form when it has one: it is faster and you get a receipt. Keep a copy and proof of posting. None of these letters guarantees a result.