Municipal waste fee

What it means

The local fee for municipal and minor construction waste is a charge a municipality levies for collecting, transporting and disposing of waste in its area. It is paid by residents and also by companies and sole traders using property in the municipality for business, such as an office, shop or business premises.

Each municipality sets the rate and method of calculation in a generally binding regulation, within the range allowed by law. For businesses the fee is most often based on the number of employees, on the volume and frequency of bin collection, or as quantity-based collection according to the waste actually handed over.

Although it is often mentioned alongside local taxes, legally it is a fee. The municipality imposes it by a payment assessment or, with quantity-based collection, by invoicing actual volumes. The company pays the fee for its premises, not its employees.

How it works in practice

When a client opens new premises, we remind them that the fee obligation must be reported to the municipality within the statutory deadline. This is often forgotten; the municipality finds out later and charges the fee retroactively, sometimes with a penalty for failing to report.

If a company has premises in several municipalities, it pays the fee in each under local rules. We include it in the overview of local payments together with property tax so that due dates in different months are not missed.

Where the municipality offers a choice of method, we compare the costs. An office producing little waste may pay less under quantity-based collection than under a flat rate per employee, or the other way round. The fee is a tax-deductible expense for the company.

What to watch out for

The municipal waste fee does not cover all waste. Business waste that is not similar to household waste, for example from production or construction, must be handed over to an authorised operator under a contract and recorded in the waste records.

A common mistake is paying the fee only for the head office and forgetting a warehouse or branch in another municipality. At an inspection, the municipality then recovers the arrears for several years back, with interest.