Requesting data about your income

In some situations, organisations may request information about your income, such as a personal income statement. For example, if you want to rent a home, or to assess whether you are eligible for a certain scheme, such as remission of municipal taxes.

On this page

Income data and renting a home

If you want to rent a home, you may be obliged to provide data about your income. Below, you can read when a housing association or a letting agent may request your income data.

Renting a home through a housing association

If you are looking to rent a home through a housing association, they are allowed to ask what your income is. For example, because you are not allowed to earn too much for some homes.

The housing association is allowed to request and record your income data only when it is really necessary. For example, if you are going to sign the tenancy contract. And not earlier, for example, because the housing association believes it is useful to have it in advance.

If the housing association asks for a personal income statement immediately when you register, they must then be able to give you a sound explanation why this is necessary in that phase. If they can't give you a good reason, for example, because not all tenants are subject to an income requirement, the housing association is not allowed to ask about your income when you register.

Some housing associations want to prevent people from registering for homes that are too expensive. In that case, a housing association can only ask for an indication of income when someone registers, but the housing association must also be able to clearly explain why this is necessary.

Renting a home through a letting agent

If you are going to sign (or are likely to sign) a tenancy contract through a letting agent, the agent is allowed to ask for your income data, such as your payslip or a bank statement showing that you receive a salary. This allows the agent to assess whether you can pay the rent.
The letting agent is also allowed to ask you for the following:

  • A landlord's reference. This is a statement completed by your current landlord. It states, for example, whether you have paid the rent on time, whether you owe (or have owed) rent in arrears and whether you have caused a nuisance.
  • Data about your marital status (marriage or registered partnership). The agent wants to know this because your partner may be a co-tenant.

The letting agent is only allowed to ask for information that is necessary to assess whether you can pay the rent. This means that, for example, the agent is not allowed to ask what your nationality or ethnicity is. The agent is not allowed to ask for your citizen service number (Dutch: BSN). This number may only be used if a law states that this is allowed.

The letting agent IS allowed to ask you to show your identity document. The reason for this is that the agent is obliged to check your identity. This is part of the tenant screening process letting agents have to complete, because they have a duty of care towards landlords.

This duty of care means that your letting agent must find out and assess whether you, as a potential tenant (prospective tenant), can fulfil all obligations under the tenancy contract.

Objection to rent increase

If you, the tenant, are subject to an income-related rent increase, but your income has decreased, you can ask your landlord for a rent cut. You do this by objecting to the rent increase. You are by law obliged to provide your landlord with the following documents:

  • a personal income statement (previously known as the IB60 form) of all residents of your home;
  • an extract from the personal records database (Dutch: BRP), showing how many residents are registered at the address.

Remission of municipal taxes

If you are asking the municipality for a remission of municipal taxes, the municipality must assess whether you are indeed eligible for remission. The municipality looks at, among other things, the balance of your bank account(s), your income and the amount of your rent or mortgage.

National rules remission of municipal taxes

The municipality must apply national rules when determining remission. First, it looks at your assets. If your assets are not enough to pay the municipal taxes, the municipality will calculate what you can pay. This is your income minus certain expenses stated in the national rules.

Privacystory

Jason (30) was excluded by an algorithm. ‘It turned out that my income hadn't been properly included for a rented home...’
 

Man met warme trui en sokken thuis op de bank met laptop en telefoon