Dutch Lawmakers Approve a 36% Tax on Unrealized Crypto, Stock, and Bond Gains

>The new Box 3 system replaces the old tax-free capital threshold (€57,684 in 2025) with a tax-free annual return of €1,800.

is the limit still the same? you get taxed on investments you haven’t sold if it’s over €57,684 in a year?

that’s insane if that’s actually the limit. imagine getting taxed because a christmas rally put you over and then the market dumped in january. why would you ever invest?

This is such a disgrace….

Another tax on the poor, the rich will pick up their bags and move

I buy $500,000 worth of Stock. A misleading news article comes out which causes its worth to increase to $600,000. A day later the company comes out and says the article is erroneous. The stock returns to its original value.

I now owe $36,000 to the government.

Time to pack your bags and leave the Netherlands. What a horrible idea. The amount of capital flight will be for the history books if this passes.

We have this in Ireland, Deemed Disposal, but only forced pay in year 7. I like the idea of a tax free amount in each year, we don’t have that in Ireland.
I agree with the underlying idea though, it is generally to catch wealthy borrowing off assets for income etc and paying no tax, eg Elon Musk.

Did anyone actually research what’s about to be changed? The Netherlands has had a wealth tax since 1892 and the current system has been in place since 2001

The Netherlands already had a tax on wealth including unrealized gains that was a % over a fixed assumed 4% growth in the system that was in effect from 2001. That means that investments over a certain amount as well as wealth in the bank were assumed to grow by 4% and you were taxed over that amount. A judge ruled this to be an illegal structure because even if your growth was less than 4% people were getting taxed on fictitious growth they did not actually experience.

From 2023 until 2027 a temporary system is in place that puts a roughly 1.2% assumed growth on wealth in banks and 6% on investments and if your growth is actually less than that you can get a tax deductible on the next year.

In 2028 this system is going to move to be completely fixed on your actual experienced growth. Yes this means if you experienced more than the assumed 6% growth you are paying more than in the previous system, but only because previously the government was wrongly guestimating you were experiencing less growth. For most people who are simple savers at banks or conservative investors this probably ends up with them paying less taxes overall because they do not experience 6% growth.

Start ups and real estate both have exemptions btw.

The law has also only passed in the Second Chamber, and there have already been parties that want changes to be made before 2028.

Specifically the 36% number is just that part of what has been passed is that the number is definitly going to be 36% of your experienced growth, as it has been since 2024 (increased from 32% in 2023)

Please do more than reading headlines

lol… best of luck to a Dutch company ever competing with an American one with this. How will they ever raise money ?

Hahaha. That’s one way to shoot yourself in the foot. Good job.

Doesn’t this make long-term investments a upper-class feature ?
If working-class people are basically forced to sell out of fear of the market, while the upper-class always are able to pay off the tax no worries.

Who exactly is it that drives these politics forward in the Netherlands ?

Why do Europeans hate making money so much?

Great news for other European countries who will now see wealthy Dutch move there.

What about unrealized losses?

How many times do you get taxed on that money?  Say, I invest 1000, and in a year, it’s worth 1500. Presumably, I pay taxes on the 500.  Then, a year later, it’s worth 1750.  Do I pay taxes on 750, or 250?  

Denmark already does this, at 27/42%

This, from a serious news site, seems relevant:

“The new system taxes the unrealized gains on these assets – the profits of investments that have increased in value, but haven’t been cashed out yet. Parliamentarians don’t like that this will result in people paying tax on money they don’t have yet. **A majority, therefore, asked the government to come up with a way in which investors** [**only pay tax on realized returns**](https://nltimes.nl/2026/01/20/netherlands-likely-start-taxing-capital-gains-annually-2028) **- money in their pocket once they sell the asset involved. They want the government to present that plan by Budget Day 2028 at the latest**.”

[https://nltimes.nl/2026/02/13/dutch-parliament-greenlights-new-box-3-tax-set-take-effect-2028](https://nltimes.nl/2026/02/13/dutch-parliament-greenlights-new-box-3-tax-set-take-effect-2028)

Thanks for destroying your own capital market to London’s benefit.

Diddy Bam Bam will be upset

Supporting the taxing unrealized gains is a litmus test for financial literacy.

Do they offer a tax refund on unrealized losses?

2027 news – record number of people move from EU to Dubai

Sooo…I assume they send you money when your stock tanks?

By the time you do the math on what you owe, the “unrealized” gain in the crypto market could be wiped out. It’s incredibly volatile. Seems like a nightmare for the tax payer if they still owe on a gain that no longer exist because it did exist at some point past a tax due date.

So everyone can just collectively tank the price of crypto on the tax assessment day, then buy it back up the next day, right?

From what I understand you can put up to 30% of your salary until you reach about 137,800$ in a tax exempt account that will not be subject to that new 36% unrealised gain tax. This means that only about 2-3% of the Dutch population will be hit by this. Everybody complains that the rich take too big a portion of the pie but when there’s measures to deal with it people freak out thinking they are richer than they really are. The vast majority of the Dutch will not be affected by this unless they invest outside this tax exempt account.