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This question implies that the Netherlands government taxes citizens' wealth year after year; even well beyond it originally being earned by the citizen. Is that true?

D Stanley
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DeepDeadpool
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  • The tax linked in the comment is only 1.2% of the current value in the bank. It's not "beyond originally being earned by the citizen". – Brythan Mar 04 '18 at 02:01
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    I earned it yesterday when I received my paycheck and it looks as though it is taxed every single year after that point. So yeah - well beyond the point when I earned it. – DeepDeadpool Nov 13 '19 at 23:01

2 Answers2

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The Netherlands has what is known as the "Box 3" tax that is somewhat like a tax on net wealth. Net assets are treated as if they yield 4% and are then taxed at 30%. This results in a effective tax rate of 1.2% on net assets.

This page from KPMG delves further into Box 3 taxation:

Box 3 deals with capital income, that is, income from savings and investments. Taxable income is determined on the basis of a deemed return on capital. This deemed return is a percentage of the total value of assets and liabilities on 1 January of the tax year. The deemed percentage is applied after deduction of an exempt amount (EUR 30.000 per taxpayer). It is emphasized that the taxable income is computed without regard to the actual income received. Thus, if actual income exceeds the deemed percentage, no tax is due on the excess. Conversely, there is no reduction in tax if actual income is less than the deemed percentage. The deemed income is taxed at 30 percent. For these purposes, assets include not only money, shares, bonds, and tangible assets (such as a second house) but also any intangible assets, which have an economic value. The latter could include, for example, permits, licenses, and patents. Non-qualifying annuities are taxed in Box 3. Depending on the circumstances, rights arising under trusts may be covered by Box 3.

D Krueger
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    I heard "yes-ish". I guess if you live in the Netherlands you'd either better literally store your money as cash in a mattress or invest it at a hopefully > 4% rate of return. – DeepDeadpool Mar 04 '18 at 02:49
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    @DeepDeadpool I think even cash in a mattress counts as an asset. And if you're earning less than 1.2% on your assets, you're being taxed at over 100% of your actual capital gains. – D Krueger Mar 04 '18 at 03:30
  • I think you're right about the asset classification – DeepDeadpool Mar 04 '18 at 03:32
  • @DeepDeadpool: EUR 500 exception for cash. That's 6 euro saved. – MSalters Mar 05 '18 at 19:08
  • It's like a second property tax...but on all your assets... – rogerdpack Nov 13 '19 at 18:04
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    Interesting-- do they also charge capital gains when you sell your assets? If you're not being taxed twice this might actually be a lower rate of taxation than the US. – Dugan Nov 13 '19 at 18:33
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    @Dugan: No capital gains tax, unless you trade professionally. (in which case gains are simply taxed as regular income, there's no special rule for capital gains) – MSalters Nov 14 '19 at 09:14
  • @Dugan: the NL tax regime can be better for short term holdings, where the higher capital gains rate is used. For typical rates of return on assets, the difference could be 1-2%. For truly long-term holdings (10+ years), it's another story: the drag of a 1.2% lower rate of return every year starts to dominate. After 30 years of compounding, this can easily add up to 15-25% less capital under the NL system. (And under a recent proposal to change the box 3 tax, this difference will become even greater.) – abeboparebop Jan 20 '20 at 10:55
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I think you will find that the Netherlands doesn’t tax citizens but residents. I think the USA is the only country that taxes its citizens even when they haven’t been in the USA for many years.

GS - Apologise to Monica
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gnasher729
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