Box 3 Tax Netherlands 2026: Rates & Tax-Free Allowance

Bottom line up front: box 3 is the Dutch tax on your savings and investments. In 2026 the rate is 36%, and the first €59,357 per person of net assets is tax-free. You are not taxed on your real return; instead the Belastingdienst applies fixed forfait percentages to your assets — 1.28% for savings (provisional), 6.00% for investments (fixed) and 2.70% for debts (provisional). Because the old system was struck down in court, there is now a counter-evidence rule (tegenbewijsregeling) letting you pay tax on your actual return when it is lower, and a fully new actual-return system is planned for 2028. This guide explains how that works in practice — and why every figure here needs confirming for your own case.

What box 3 taxes, and who pays it

The Dutch income tax has three “boxes.” Box 1 is salary and business profit, box 2 is income from a substantial shareholding in your own company, and box 3 is your savings and investments — bank balances, a second property, shares, crypto and other assets, minus your debts. If your net box 3 assets on 1 January exceed the tax-free allowance, you owe box 3 tax on the excess.

For residents, box 3 is levied on worldwide assets, not just Dutch ones — a foreign bank account or an apartment abroad can fall inside it, subject to tax treaties that may prevent double taxation. That worldwide scope is what makes box 3 the tax expats most often overlook, and the reason it is worth understanding before you move.

The 2026 rate, allowance and forfaits

Three numbers frame box 3 in 2026:

• Rate: 36% on the taxable box 3 return.
• Tax-free allowance (heffingvrij vermogen): €59,357 per person — roughly €118,714 for fiscal partners, who can also shift assets between them to use both allowances.
• Deemed-return forfaits, applied to the value of each asset class:
  • Savings (bank balances): 1.28% — provisional; to be fixed in early 2027.
  • Investments and other assets: 6.00% — already fixed for 2026.
  • Debts: 2.70% — provisional.

The mechanism is a two-step calculation. The Belastingdienst applies the forfait percentages to your assets and debts to arrive at a deemed return, then taxes that return at 36% — it does not tax the asset value itself. Because the savings and debt percentages are still voorlopig (provisional) for 2026, treat them as figures that can still move; only the 6.00% investment forfait is locked in.

A simplified example: someone with €150,000 in savings and no debts has about €90,600 above the allowance. Applying the 1.28% savings forfait gives a deemed return of roughly €1,160, taxed at 36% — around €418. The same €90,600 held as investments, at the 6.00% forfait, produces a far larger deemed return and a much higher bill. Which forfait applies depends on how your wealth is actually held, so the asset mix matters as much as the total.

Why the system is in flux: the counter-evidence rule

Box 3 has been through years of litigation. The Dutch Supreme Court ruled that taxing a deemed return can be unlawful where it exceeds a taxpayer’s actual return. In response, a counter-evidence rule (tegenbewijsregeling) now lets you elect to be taxed on your real return when it is demonstrably lower than the forfait-based figure — you file this through the Belastingdienst’s declaration of actual return (opgaaf werkelijk rendement).

This matters most for people whose money sits mainly in low-yielding savings while the forfaits assume more. If your genuine interest, dividends and gains came to less than the deemed return, the counter-evidence route can reduce the bill — but it requires you to document your actual return properly, which is exactly where a bookkeeper earns their fee. Separately, a completely new actual-return regime is planned to start in 2028 (delayed from 2027), after which box 3 is expected to tax real returns directly rather than through forfaits.

Box 3 for expats and 30%-ruling holders

If you are moving to the Netherlands, two points deserve care. First, box 3 reaches your worldwide assets once you are a Dutch tax resident, so overseas savings and property can come into scope. Second, the interaction between box 3 and the 30% ruling has historically involved a “partial non-resident” status that changed how some foreign assets were treated — and that area has been subject to reform. We deliberately keep this general: the rules around expat status and box 3 have shifted in recent years, so confirm your own situation with a tax adviser before assuming any exemption applies to you.

The safe planning takeaway is that box 3, the 30% ruling and any tax treaty with your home country interact case by case. Two people with identical assets can face very different box 3 outcomes depending on residency, timing and which reliefs they hold.

What to do next

Box 3 is genuinely in transition, and the provisional forfaits plus the counter-evidence route mean the “right” number for you is not something to guess. Work out whether your assets are classed as savings or investments, check whether your actual return is lower than the deemed return, and confirm how any expat status affects you. This article is general information, not personal tax advice — the figures are current for 2026 but several are provisional and the system changes again in 2028.

If you want the calculation done and filed correctly, our bookkeeping and tax service handles box 3 alongside your income tax return, including the actual-return counter-evidence where it saves you money.