Tax in the Netherlands
See what the Netherlands's tax rules do to your property portfolio.
What Freeholt models for property, income and retirement in the Netherlands, and what it does not.
Free to start. No card. Rules reviewed 15 September 2026.
Modelled here
- Tax on rental income
- Duty on purchase
- Annual property or land tax
- Income tax beyond the rent
- Dividends, interest and share sales
- Retirement savings
- Inheritance and what happens on death
EUR · Rates as at 15 September 2026 · Estimates, not advice
Dutch rent is not taxed, and neither is the gain on a sale. What is taxed is the property itself. A let home sits in Box 3, which each 1 January charges an assumed return on what the property is worth rather than on what it earned: 6% of the value for 2026, taxed at 36%, on value above the €59,357 allowance each owner gets. For an owner with no mortgage that is 2.16% of the value a year, whether the place was full, empty or between tenants. A mortgage reduces the charge, at its own 2.70%, and the two are blended into one rate before the allowance comes off, so a geared property costs more than 2.16% of its net value: a €500,000 flat with a €300,000 mortgage owes €5,544 a year, where treating it as net wealth suggests €3,038. A Box 3 charged on the return actually made passed the House on 12 February 2026 for 1 January 2028. It is a proposal, so nothing here prices it.
How rental income is taxed in the Netherlands
For a resident owner: There is no tax on residential rental income. For an owner living abroad and renting this out: There is no tax on residential rental income.
Capital gains on a sale
There is no capital gains tax on residential property.
Annual property tax while holding
About 0.11% a year on the property value.
What it costs to buy
About 8% of the price on purchase. Overdrachtsbelasting (transfer tax) is 8% on a home the buyer will not live in, down from 10.4% on 1 January 2026, which is now the rate for non residential property. An owner occupier who declares the home as their main residence beforehand pays 2%, and a buyer under 35 doing the same for a home worth €555,000 or less, who has not used that exemption before, pays nothing. There is no foreign buyer surcharge. Freeholt charges the flat 8% whatever the property is for, because the 2% rate and the under 35 exemption both turn on a declaration the app does not hold. For a purchase to live in, the figure shown is too high: €48,000 on a €600,000 purchase, against €12,000 in reality. Belastingplan 2027 proposes cutting the 8% to 7%, which is a proposal rather than law and is not priced.
Where the tax actually lands
The Netherlands taking nothing does not mean nobody does. An owner who is tax resident somewhere that taxes worldwide income generally pays tax on the rent and any gain from this property THERE, at that country's rates, with credit for anything paid here. That makes the owner's country of residence the thing that decides the tax bill on this property, not the country the property sits in. Freeholt models the residence side separately, so setting a country of residence in the app shows the whole picture rather than a zero.
Why a Dutch landlord pays the same tax on an empty flat
In most countries a rental property is taxed on what it earns, so a void month, a repair bill or a rise in the mortgage rate all reduce the tax. In the Netherlands none of them do. A let property sits in Box 3, which taxes the ASSET rather than the income: the law assumes a return of 6% of what the property is worth and charges 36% of that assumed figure, which is 2.16% of the value every year. Actual rent, actual agent fees, actual maintenance and an actual empty quarter change none of it. There is no expense to deduct and no rental loss to carry forward, because there is no rental profit in the calculation to begin with. The practical consequence is the one people are least ready for: a Dutch rental that does badly still costs the same to hold as one that does well, so the risk of a bad year lands entirely on the owner rather than being shared with the tax bill.
One date decides the Box 3 bill: 1 January
Box 3 takes a single snapshot. What was owned on 1 January is what the charge runs on for that whole year, and nothing that happens afterwards adjusts it. A property bought on 2 January is outside Box 3 until the following January. One sold on 2 January is charged in full for a year it was not held. The same snapshot decides the mortgage: the debt is measured on that day too, and it reduces the base at its own 2.7%. Each owner gets the first €59,357 of net value free of the charge, and a couple assessed together pools one base and two allowances, which is why a jointly held Dutch property is charged on a smaller base than two separately held halves of it. Freeholt prices the charge on the value the projection holds rather than on a 1 January snapshot, so a purchase or sale near the turn of the year is the case where the app and the assessment diverge most.
An own home and a rental are in different boxes, and the mortgage works in opposite directions
A home the owner lives in is not in Box 3 at all. It sits in Box 1 alongside salary, where the law adds a small assumed rent to income (0.35% of the official WOZ value for most houses) and then allows the mortgage interest to be deducted against it. That deduction is capped at 37.56% rather than the 49.5% top rate, and since 2013 it only applies to a loan contracted to be repaid in full, on at least an annuity basis, within 30 years. An interest only loan on an own home earns nothing. On a let property the mortgage does something quite different: there is no interest to deduct, because there is no income to deduct it from. The debt instead reduces the Box 3 base at 2.7%, which is worth 0.97% of the borrowed amount a year. So the same euro of mortgage is a deduction against income in one box and a reduction of taxable value in the other, at rates that have nothing to do with each other. Freeholt models the Box 3 side. The own home deduction is not priced, which matters when weighing a move into a property that is currently let.
Box 3 is legislated to change in 2028, and the direction is known
A Box 3 charged on the return ACTUALLY made, rather than an assumed one, passed the House of Representatives on 12 February 2026 and is before the Senate for 1 January 2028. It would replace the mechanic above rather than adjust it. Until then, a separate right already exists: a taxpayer who can show a real return lower than the assumed one may be taxed on the lower figure. That right only ever reduces the bill, and it needs a full statement of real returns including gains not yet realised, which is not something this app holds. Two things follow for anyone planning more than a year or two ahead. The figures on this page are current law and are not a forecast of 2028. And in a poor year the Dutch charge shown here is the higher of the two numbers that might end up being paid, not the lower.
Income tax in the Netherlands, beyond the rent
Progressive, up to 49.5%. The bands run Up to 38,883 at 35.75%; 38,883 to 78,426 at 37.56%; Above 78,426 at 49.5%. Rental profit is taxed separately, not on this ladder. Figures in EUR, as verified 15 September 2026.
Dividends, interest and share sales
How the Netherlands taxes investment income. For dividends: Not taxed. For interest: Not taxed. For share sale gains: Not taxed.
Pensions and retirement savings
EET. Deductible in, taxed out. Contributions come off taxable income. Capped at 35,588.4 a year. Growth inside the fund is untaxed. Withdrawals can start from age 67. The rest is taxed as income. Drawing before 67 adds a 20% penalty.
Inheritance and what happens on death in the Netherlands
Charged on each beneficiary's share, at a rate that depends on how they were related, at up to 40%. The charge falls on each person who inherits rather than on the estate as a whole, so who inherits, and how closely they were related, changes the bill. The 40% is a worst case rather than a rate anyone is promised. It is the top of the least generous class of beneficiary, usually somebody unrelated, and a child inheriting from a parent normally faces a good deal less. A surviving spouse is not exempt outright: they get an allowance of 828,035, and anything above it is charged. These rules were verified 1 January 2026. Freeholt models the country's rules rather than any particular will, so what an estate pays still depends on who inherits and what is in it.
Worth knowing about tax in the Netherlands
The Dutch first band rate of 35.75% is income tax of 8.10% plus 27.65% of national insurance (AOW, Anw and Wlz), charged on the same income to the same €38,883 ceiling in the same assessment. Read it as an all in rate: comparing it with a country whose headline rate excludes social insurance, as the UK's 20% does, overstates the Dutch gap. The Netherlands does not tax a private investor's dividends, interest or gains. Box 3 charges a deemed return on the VALUE of the holding each 1 January instead (6% deemed on investments and property, taxed at 36%, which is 2.16% of value a year), so what the holding actually earned makes no difference to the charge. A Dutch private investor pays no tax on a dividend when it arrives. The holding is charged instead, through Box 3's deemed return on its value. The 15% withheld from a Dutch company's dividend is a prepayment, not an extra tax: a Dutch resident credits it in full against their assessment and is refunded any excess. Counting it as tax would charge the same money twice. A Dutch private investor pays no tax on interest when it arrives. The balance is charged instead, through Box 3's deemed return on its value. The Netherlands does not tax a private investor's gain on selling shares. The holding was charged each year instead, through Box 3's deemed return on its value.
How Freeholt models the Netherlands
Every rate above is priced from Freeholt's own table for the Netherlands and runs through the whole projection: rental income, a modelled sale and the annual holding costs all use the same figures. They cannot be edited yet, so a position that differs from the defaults has to be read with that in mind. The estimate assumes an individual owner rather than a company or trust, and where a rule is not modelled it is listed below rather than quietly priced at zero.
What running this property costs
In the Netherlands this covers OZB (municipal property tax on the WOZ value), VvE (owners' association) contributions for apartments, landlord (opstal) insurance, a maintenance reserve, and management fees.
How borrowing works here
Dutch buy to let mortgages are capped well below the near 100% loan to value an owner occupier can get, commonly 70% to 80% of the rented out value, and run on a long 30 year annuity or linear schedule with the rate fixed for a chosen period. An interest only structure earns no mortgage interest deduction (unlike an owner occupier's home loan), so lenders default to annuity or linear repayment.
What actually happened here
This country's own record, one year at a time. Nothing on this page is borrowed from another country. Move across a chart to read a year.
Recent rule changes in the Netherlands
- 2026-01-01 Box 3, the transitional regime, charges a DEEMED return on asset VALUE at the 1 January reference date, not on rent. Art. 5.2(2) Wet IB 2001 (time state 21 to 02 to 2026): the return is 6% of 'overige bezittingen'. Which includes real estate. Plus a percentage of bank deposits, LESS 2.70% of debts; art. 2.13 taxes the result at 36%; art. 5.5 exempts the first €59,357 per person (€118,714 for fiscal partners, pooled under art. 5.2(5)). For an ungeared holder above the allowance that is 2.16% of value a year. It is NOT 2.16% for a geared one: art. 5.2(1) (2) computes a single EFFECTIVE percentage over the whole base and then applies it to the base AFTER the allowance, so a €500,000 flat with a €300,000 mortgage is charged on a 10.95% effective return over a €140,643 base. €5,544, where a flat 2.16% of value would say €10,800. The engine now computes this; `src/invest/countries/nl.ts` holds it. THE BANK DEPOSIT PERCENTAGE IS NOT COMPUTED: it is set provisionally for the running year (1.28% for 2026) and fixed definitively the following February with retroactive effect. The 2025 figure went 0.92% → 1.44% → 1.37% that way. So a savings balance priced from it would be revised backwards every year.
- 2026-01-01 Overdrachtsbelasting on a dwelling the buyer will NOT occupy fell from 10.4% to 8% (art. 14(2) Wet op belastingen van rechtsverkeer, time state 01 to 01 to 2026). 10.4% remains the rate for NON RESIDENTIAL property (art. 14(1)); an owner occupier declaring the home as their main residence pays 2% (art. 14(3)); a buyer under 35 who has never used it, buying a main residence worth €555,000 or less, pays nothing (art. 15(1)(p)). A cliff, not a taper, and not modelled here. The 10.4% this engine carried until now overstated a €500,000 buy to let purchase by €12,000.
- 2027-01-01 Belastingplan 2027, presented on Prinsjesdag 15 September 2026, proposes cutting the 8% investment dwelling transfer tax to 7%. PROPOSED, not computed: the 2027 to 01 to 01 consolidated state of art. 14 WBR was read on 15 September 2026 and still says 8%.(proposed only, never priced into your figures)
- 2028-01-01 An ACTUAL return Box 3 system passed the House on 12 February 2026 and is before the Senate for 1 January 2028. Until it is law the deemed return regime above stands. Separately, and already available, the tegenbewijsregeling lets a taxpayer prove their real return was lower than the deemed one and be taxed on the lower figure. A one sided right this engine does not model, so a taxpayer who would win such a claim is overstated here.(proposed only, never priced into your figures)
What Freeholt models here
- ModelledTax on rental income
- Resident and non resident rates, with interest and losses treated under the local rule.
- None hereCapital gains on a sale
- No general capital gains tax; the page says what applies instead.
- ModelledDuty on purchase
- One off, on the way in, at the scale in force.
- ModelledAnnual property or land tax
- Charged every year the property is held.
- ModelledIncome tax beyond the rent
- Salary and other income, stacked with the rent.
- ModelledDividends, interest and share sales
- Investment income and gains, with the local allowances.
- ModelledRetirement savings
- Contributions, the fund and the way out.
- ModelledInheritance and what happens on death
- Who pays, and on what, when property passes on.
What Freeholt does not model here
- Treaty relief between this country and the owner's country of residence
What the figures above leave out (14)
- Only the general Dutch tax credit (algemene heffingskorting) is included. The others (the combination credit for working parents, the credit for people over state pension age, the young disabled credit) depend on the household and on age, which these figures do not hold. Where one of them applies, the real Dutch tax is lower than shown.
- Dutch deductions, mortgage interest on an own home most of all, are relieved at 37.56% rather than at the 49.50% top rate: the tax is increased again by 11.94% of the amount deducted. No deductions are priced here, so nothing shown is wrong because of it. But a figure that ever includes Dutch mortgage interest relief needs this cap applied.
- A non resident is charged Dutch income tax alone here (8.10% on the first band instead of 35.75%), because a non resident is usually not insured under the Dutch national schemes. A cross border worker who IS insured in the Netherlands pays the contributions too, and their real bill is higher, by up to about €10,751 a year.
- The general Dutch tax credit is applied to non residents here. In law it goes to a qualifying non resident taxpayer (broadly, someone with 90% or more of their income taxed in the Netherlands), and a non resident who does not qualify gets less of it, or none. Where that is the case, the real Dutch tax is higher than shown, by up to €3,115.
- Since the Dutch Supreme Court's Box 3 rulings an ACTUAL return lower than the deemed one can be proved and taxed on the lower figure instead. That right can only reduce the charge, and it needs a full statement of real returns including unrealised gains, which is not held here. So in a poor year the Dutch tax shown is higher than what would be paid after making that claim.
- Cash and savings are not priced in the Box 3 figure. The Dutch percentage for bank deposits is set provisionally during the year and fixed for good the following February, backdated (the 2025 figure moved from 0.92% to 1.44% to 1.37%), so a savings balance charged from it would be revised after the fact. Property, investments and the mortgage against them are priced in full.
- The first €3,800 of debt does not reduce a Box 3 base in Dutch law (€7,600 for fiscal partners), and that threshold is not applied here. It makes the Dutch charge shown lower than the real one by at most about €37 a year for one person, or €74 for a couple.
- The €68,843 where Dutch Box 2 steps from 24.5% to 31% is per person, and fiscal partners have one each. Only one is applied here, so a couple who split a distribution between them pay less than shown.
- The Dutch state pension (AOW) is not included. It is a flat entitlement built up by living or working in the Netherlands, not a pot with a balance, so there is nothing here to project. But it sits underneath the private pension figures shown, and total retirement income is higher than they suggest.
- A Dutch pension is worth more than the untaxed growth shown. The pot is also outside Box 3, so it escapes the 2.16% of value yearly charge the same money would carry in an ordinary investment account. Roughly €8,600 a year on a €400,000 pot. That saving is not counted anywhere in these figures.
- The Dutch annual contribution room shown, €35,588, is the figure for someone with no workplace pension. Dutch law reduces it by whatever an employer's scheme built up last year, and most Dutch employees have one. So the real room is smaller, sometimes nil, and a contribution shown as fully relieved may not be.
- Unused Dutch contribution room from the past ten years can be used later, up to €42,753, and that carry forward is not included. Where past contributions fell short of the room available, the real room is larger than shown.
- The contribution ceiling used is the one for an individual Dutch annuity (lijfrente). A workplace scheme is capped differently (a percentage of pensionable salary, being reworked scheme by scheme under the pension reform running to 2028), and that limit is not priced here.
- Access is set at 67, the Dutch state pension age. A workplace pension can often start earlier with a permanent reduction to the amount, and an annuity can be built up until five years after that age. So a withdrawal before 67 is charged the 20% early access penalty here even where the scheme allows it, which overstates that case.
Coverage deepens country by country. Every figure is an estimate, not advice.
Compare with another country
Each page is built from the same table the app runs on, so the figures line up side by side.
Compare the Netherlands with another country — rent, gains, annual tax and duty, side by side.
Questions people ask
- Does Freeholt model Netherlands property tax?
- Yes. Rental income tax, duty on purchase and annual property or land tax are priced from Freeholt's own rate table for the Netherlands. The Netherlands levies no capital gains tax, so there is nothing to price. The rates are not editable yet, so one that differs in a particular case cannot be overridden. Every figure is an estimate, not advice.
- How is rental income from the Netherlands taxed if I live somewhere else?
- There is no tax on residential rental income. Tax may also be due in the country of residence, with credit for what was paid here. Estimates only, not advice.
- What are the Netherlands figures as at?
- The rate table for the Netherlands was last reviewed on 15 September 2026. Freeholt date stamps every country rather than implying all of them were checked on the same day. Estimates only, not advice.
- Do I pay Dutch tax on my rental income?
- Not as income. A let property is taxed in Box 3 on what it is worth rather than on what it earns, so the rent itself is not declared and the costs are not deductible. The charge is about 2.16% of the value a year for an owner with no mortgage. Every figure here is an estimate, not advice.
- Is there capital gains tax when I sell a Dutch property?
- Not for a private owner. The gain is not a taxable event, because Box 3 has been charging the value every year instead. Two cases sit outside that: a property held through a company the owner has a substantial interest in, and activity that goes well beyond ordinary asset management, such as substantial redevelopment. Where that second line falls is case law rather than a threshold, and Freeholt does not test it. Estimates only, not advice.
- Does my mortgage reduce the Dutch tax on a rental property?
- Yes, but not as an interest deduction. The debt reduces the Box 3 base at 2.7%, which is worth about 0.97% of the borrowed amount a year. The interest actually paid does not enter the calculation at all. Estimates only, not advice.
- What do I pay to buy a home in the Netherlands?
- Transfer tax is 8% on a home the buyer will not live in, 2% where it is declared as a main residence beforehand, and nothing at all for a buyer under 35 taking a main residence worth €555,000 or less who has not used that exemption before. Non residential property is 10.4%. Freeholt charges the flat 8%, because the lower rates turn on a declaration the app does not hold, so an owner occupier's figure is too high. Estimates only, not advice.
- I live outside the Netherlands. Will my family pay Dutch inheritance tax?
- Only if the deceased was still treated as living there. Dutch inheritance tax follows the residence of the person who died and nothing else, so a Dutch house owned by someone who died resident elsewhere is outside it entirely, whatever it is worth. The exception is nationality: a Dutch national who has left is treated as still resident for ten years, wherever they moved to and whatever they own. For a gift, anyone who has left is treated as still resident for one year. So emigrating changes the answer for a Dutch national ten years later and for everyone else almost at once. Estimates only, not advice.
- I live outside the Netherlands and own a Dutch flat. What changes?
- The Box 3 charge still applies to the Dutch property, and the €59,357 tax free amount does not: a non resident is charged on the whole value from the first euro. Tax may also be due in the country of residence, with credit for what was paid here. Setting a country of residence in Freeholt shows both sides rather than one. Estimates only, not advice.
Model a property in the Netherlands alongside everything else you own: see the year your portfolio starts paying you back.