Netherlands plans changes to box 3. More people may pay tax on savings

The new measures were presented in a government letter to the Tweede Kamer, the lower house of the Dutch parliament, on 29 September 2026. They are part of a broader package concerning taxes, the purchasing power of working people and social security.

Box 3 is the part of Dutch income tax that concerns income from assets. It includes savings, investments and real estate other than an owner-occupied home used as the main residence.

Under the current system, tax is calculated using fixed, notional rates of return set by the government. This means that the tax authorities assume a specified income from particular types of assets. Taxpayers who earned a lower actual return can use a procedure that allows them to report it and have their tax recalculated accordingly.

The planned reform is intended to introduce taxation of actual income, such as interest on savings, dividends and rental income. The government wants to launch the new system on 1 January 2028.

Under the new proposal, the annual tax-free amount of income from assets would be <strong>EUR 1,000 per person<\/strong>. The previous draft provided for EUR 1,800.

It is important to distinguish between these figures: <strong>EUR 1,000 concerns income from assets, not the amount of savings held in a bank account<\/strong>. Meanwhile, EUR 1,800 was an assumption in an earlier draft, not the exemption amount currently in force.

For example, a person with EUR 50,000 in savings in an account paying 2.5% interest annually would receive EUR 1,250 in interest. With an exemption of EUR 1,000, EUR 250 of income would remain taxable. Under the previous option, with an exemption of EUR 1,800, this income would fall entirely within the tax-free amount.

This is a simplified example and does not take into account other income from assets, costs, losses or filing jointly with a tax partner.

Reducing the planned tax-free amount could increase the number of people paying tax on income from savings and investments. The final impact of the changes will depend on the rules adopted and the individual circumstances of taxpayers.

The new proposal also changes how increases in the value of investments are settled for tax purposes. The government wants gains from increases in the value of shares and other financial instruments to be taxed, in principle, only when they are sold from 2028.

Under the earlier draft, many investments were to be taxed annually even if they had increased in value but their owner had not sold them. Tax would therefore also apply to gains existing only "on paper".

The proposed solution would defer taxation of such a gain until it is realised. <strong>Dividends and interest received would, however, still constitute separate income<\/strong> — simply keeping shares in a portfolio would not mean that all income related to them was exempt.

The package also covers owners of bv companies, the Dutch equivalent of private limited companies. These proposals concern box 2, rather than box 3.5 directly.

The government plans to gradually reduce the threshold for excessive borrowing from one's own company from EUR 500,000 to EUR 100,000. The reduction would take place in five steps of EUR 80,000, starting in 2027.

This is not a ban on borrowing larger amounts. Exceeding the threshold may result in the excess being taxed as income in box 2. Paying the tax does not mean that the loan is cancelled — the liability to the company still exists. An exception applies to loans for an owner-occupied home that meet the relevant conditions.

At the same time, a temporary reduction in the higher box 2 rate from 31% to 29.2% is proposed for the years 2027–2030. This concerns the taxation of shareholder income, including paid dividends, rather than tax on the company's own profits.

The original draft of the box 3 reform was adopted by the Tweede Kamer in February 2026. A vote in the Eerste Kamer, the upper house of parliament, was postponed due to the announced changes.

The new proposals also require the appropriate legislative process. Both the detailed measures and the date of their implementation may still change.

For residents of the Netherlands, the key point is therefore that the government is proposing a lower exemption for income from assets and a different point at which investment gains are taxed. <strong>However, these are not rules that already apply when filing taxes.<\/strong>

<em>Information current as of 30 September 2026.<\/em>

<ul> <li>1 <a href="https:\/\/www.tweedekamer.nl\/kamerstukken\/brieven_regering\/detail?did=2026D47255&amp;id=2026Z20444" target="_blank">Tweede Kamer — government letter “Proposals on box 3, the purchasing power of workers and social security”, 29 September 2026<\/a><\/li> <li>2 <a href="https:\/\/www.eerstekamer.nl\/wetsvoorstel\/36748_wet_werkelijk_rendement_box" target="_blank">Eerste Kamer — status and progress of work on the Wet werkelijk rendement box 3 bill<\/a><\/li> <li>3 <a href="https:\/\/www.rijksoverheid.nl\/themas\/werk\/inkomstenbelasting\/plannen-werkelijk-rendement-box-3" target="_blank">Rijksoverheid — information on plans for the box 3 reform<\/a><\/li> <li>4 <a href="https:\/\/www.belastingdienst.nl\/wps\/wcm\/connect\/nl\/box-3\/box-3" target="_blank">Belastingdienst — current rules concerning box 3<\/a><\/li> <li>5 <a href="https:\/\/bieb.knab.nl\/ondernemen\/belastingplannen-september-2026-spaargeld-bv" target="_blank">Knab — overview of proposals concerning savings, investments and bv companies, 29 September 2026<\/a><\/li> <\/ul>