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Spring Memorandum 2025: VAT increase for culture, media and sport dropped

18 April 2025 2 min read By the specialists of VAT INSTITUTE

The abolition of the reduced rate for culture, media and sport is scrapped for good. For accommodation the increase to 21% on 1 January 2026 does go ahead, and it can already have consequences in 2025.

Tax Plan 2025 provided for the abolition, from 1 January 2026, of the reduced VAT rate of 9% for accommodation (hotels, guesthouses, holiday homes), culture, media and sport. The proposed abolition for culture, media and sport met with considerable public and political resistance.

During the debate on Tax Plan 2025 in the House of Representatives, an amended motion by Van Dijk and others was adopted. It required the State Secretary for Finance to look, in consultation with the House and before the 2025 Spring Memorandum, for an alternative. That concession was needed to secure a majority for Tax Plan 2025 in the Senate.

Culture, media and sport

After lengthy negotiations the coalition parties reached agreement. The outcome appears in the Spring Memorandum 2025, published on Good Friday. It proposes scrapping the abolition of the reduced rate for culture, media and sport for good, so the reduced rate continues to apply after 2025. The cost is met by compensating income tax brackets and credits less generously for higher inflation.

Accommodation

The abolition of the reduced rate for accommodation on 1 January 2026 does go ahead. From 2026 the standard rate of 21% applies. A holiday or a night or two away in the Netherlands will become considerably more expensive.

Note that the standard rate can already apply in 2025. That is the case where, in 2025:

  • a prepayment is received for accommodation in 2026, for instance a hotel stay on 15 January 2026
  • a single-purpose voucher is sold that the holder can exchange for accommodation in the Netherlands after 31 December 2025

In both situations the transitional rules require the rate applicable at the time the accommodation is actually provided to be applied.

Questions about this topic? Get in touch with one of our specialists.

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