How are stocks taxed in the Netherlands?
The Netherlands taxes an assumed return on your entire wealth above an allowance. What you earned and whether you sold makes no difference.
The Dutch system differs fundamentally from every other country covered here. There's no tax on actually realized capital gains. Instead, your entire wealth as of January 1 gets recorded and taxed on an assumed, notional return, regardless of what you actually earned or lost.
This so-called Box 3 works like this: wealth stays tax-free up to an allowance of €59,357 per person. For the amount above that, an assumed return is applied: for 2026, that's 1.28 percent on bank deposits and 6.00 percent on investments like stocks, ETFs, and crypto assets. Debts reduce the taxable base at an assumed 2.70 percent.
36 percent tax is due on this assumed return, not on the actual gain. So anyone holding €100,000 in stocks who earned nothing, or even lost money, still pays tax on the assumed 6 percent return.
Since 2025, there's a workaround: anyone who can prove their actual return was lower than the notional one can opt to be taxed on the real return instead.
Box 3 is one of three pots in Dutch income tax. Box 1 covers work and your own home, Box 2 larger holdings in companies, Box 3 saving and investing. For each kind of asset the state sets an assumed return every year, and the tax is based on that.
For 2026 the rates are 1.28 percent on bank deposits, provisionally, and a final 6.00 percent on stocks, ETFs, crypto assets and other investments. Debts above €3,800 per person are deducted at 2.70 percent. An example: Sanne lives alone and has €100,000 in ETFs, nothing else. €40,643 lies above the allowance. A 6 percent return is assumed on that, about €2,440, and 36 percent of it goes to the state. So Sanne pays just under €880, whether her ETFs rose or fell during the year.
Since a landmark Supreme Court ruling, the system has been under reconstruction. Since tax year 2025 there's the counter-evidence rule. If Sanne can prove she earned less than the assumed 6 percent, she only pays on her real return. From 2028 the plan is to switch completely to taxing actual returns. The law needed for this has not been passed yet, so the plan could still change.
Summary
- An assumed return on total wealth gets taxed, not the actual gain.
- For 2026, a €59,357 per-person allowance and a 6.00 percent assumed return on investments apply, taxed at 36 percent.
- Since 2025, a demonstrably lower actual return can be used instead.
Did you get it?
What is actually taxed under Box 3?
A notional, assumed return on wealth above the allowance, not the actual gain earned.
What happens if you actually earned nothing on your stocks?
You still pay tax on the assumed notional return for that category, unless you prove a lower actual return.
Since when can a lower actual return be claimed?
Since tax year 2025, under the so-called counter-evidence rule.
Sources and further reading
- Belastingdienst, official calculation of Box 3 income for 2026 View source ↗
Related
- Taxes by country, all countries at a glanceTaxes by country
- Withholding tax on foreign dividendsTaxes by country
- GermanyTaxes by country
- AustriaTaxes by country
- SwitzerlandTaxes by country
- BelgiumTaxes by country
- FranceTaxes by country
- ItalyTaxes by country
- SpainTaxes by country