A new EU proposal could potentially undermine the Netherlands’ planned Box 3 wealth tax, letting wealthy investors shelter their gains in a company while ordinary savers pay 36% a year on their gains.
An EU plan to make investing easier could mean a much smaller tax bill for people who hold their investments inside a company instead of in their own name.
For most internationals with a savings account, nothing changes for your day-to-day finances. But for anyone with a sizeable investment portfolio, it could reshape how much tax you pay (and when).
What’s changing?
The Netherlands wants to overhaul Box 3, the tax on your savings and investments, from 2028. According to official sources, the new system would tax your actual gains at 36% each year, even on shares you haven’t sold.
Why are Box 3 taxes being overhauled again?
At present, Box 3 taxes a fixed, assumed return rather than what you’ve actually earned.
The Hoge Raad (the Dutch Supreme Court) ruled that illegal in 2021, so the Box 3 reform will tax your real return instead, at 36% — with the first €1,800 per person untaxed each year.
However, while the Netherlands is moving to tax private investors more heavily, the EU is heading in the opposite direction for company-held investments.
Right now, when a company earns profits from shares it holds in another company, it pays tax on that income. Should the EU proposal come to pass, it would make those profits tax-free.
This means that if you hold your investments inside your own BV (private limited company) rather than in your own name, your gains could build up untaxed inside the company, instead of being taxed yearly in Box 3.
What do these potential changes mean for savers?
If you invest privately, the new Box 3 tax would hit you with 36% a year on your gains from 2028, even on shares you haven’t sold. You pay taxes on everything above the tax-free allowance of €59,357 per person, according to the Belastingdienst (Dutch Tax Administration).
However, if the new EU proposal goes through, wealthier investors could dodge those taxes entirely. By holding their investments through a company, the EU proposal would let their gains pile up untaxed, while ordinary savers keep paying in full.
Should enough money shift into companies to escape taxation, the Dutch treasury could stand to lose billions, and the wealth tax would land hardest on the people least able to game it.
There’s a catch
Thankfully, both plans are still proposals, not law.
The EU plan comes from European Commissioner Wopke Hoekstra, reports RTL Nieuws, and was first revealed by De Telegraaf. EU tax changes need all member states to agree, which rarely happens quickly.
In addition to this, the current Box 3 reform is on equally shaky ground. Finance Minister Heinen wants to amend it before the Eerste Kamer (the Dutch Senate) votes on June 30, 2026.
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