Capital gains tax Netherlands

In the Netherlands, you are currently not taxed for capital gains or actual rental income. Instead, the Dutch tax office assumes that you enjoy a yield of up to 5.69% over your total asset value, irrespective of whether any actual gains are higher or lower (!). However, this is about to change. In a few years, the government wants to transform Box 3 into a "capital gains tax".

What does this mean?

Under a capital gains tax, first, tax is levied annually on the income from assets (such as interest, dividends, rents and leases). Second, tax is also levied on changes in the value of assets (such as capital gains or losses on shares and appreciation or depreciation of property). Hence the name; capital gains tax. What matters is the increase in value; the amount of assets is not a factor. Because capital gains are taxed each year, no tax is levied on the gain on sales. This is also directly a considerable disadvantage of this system. If there is little return from the assets, but there are large increases in value, then there might not be enough money to pay the taxes.

Another disadvantage of the capital gains tax is that you have to track changes in assets annually to calculate capital gains. Possible losses or decline in value will be taken into account, however, at this moment it is not yet clear how this will be accounted for.

Costs

With a levy on the actual return in Box 3, it is logical that the costs associated with this actual income are deductible. In order to avoid discussions with the tax authorities and all kinds of lawsuits, the government is considering a demarcation between non-deductible and deductible expenses.

Real Estate

For real estate, income will be taxed first. At the start of the new Box 3, the changes in value will be based on a flat rate (a fictitious percentage). Only later will taxation take place with the actual increases in value. The reason for this is that the data to determine the value development is not yet sufficiently available or not suitable.

Calculating your capital gains

The capital gains tax levies on income. Unlike now, the amount of assets is irrelevant. Certain assets are now (limitedly) exempt (for example green investments). The intention is to keep the exemption of specific assets as much as possible. This means converting them into an exemption of income from these assets.

It is likely that instead of the tax-free assets in Box 3, there will be a tax-free income per person. Income from assets above this exemption is taxed.