What is Budget Day in the Netherlands?
Budget Day is the day the Dutch government presents its plans for the coming year. It falls on the third Tuesday of September. Budget Day 2026 was on Tuesday 15 September. The next one is the third Tuesday of September 2027. Four documents come out that afternoon. The King reads the Troonrede (the King's Speech). The Minister of Finance then hands the Miljoenennota (the Budget Memorandum) to the Tweede Kamer.¹ That is the House of Representatives. The national budget goes with it. The fourth is the Belastingplan (the Tax Plan), published the same day.³
The Belastingplan is the one that reaches your bank account. It holds the tax measures for the next tax year: rates, allowances, deductions and thresholds. Parliament still has to vote on it, so a Budget Day announcement is a plan and not yet a rule.
We read every Budget Day and set out what changes for your situation. Box 3 leads this page, because that is where the news has sat for years. Every other theme gets one line here and a link to the page that explains it in full. For the system behind these measures, read our guide to the Dutch tax system.
In short
Budget Day (Prinsjesdag) falls on the third Tuesday of September. The 2026 edition was on 15 September.
Box 3 keeps its 36% rate for 2027. The move to taxing your real return, planned for 2028, was postponed on Budget Day 2026.
Announced is not enacted. Both chambers of parliament vote after Budget Day, and the measures still change.
The rest of the Belastingplan 2027 moved too: brackets and credits, transfer tax for buy-to-let and the pension cap.
The figures per theme live on the page that owns them, and we revisit this page every September.
Budget Day Netherlands: what changed for Box 3?
On Budget Day 2026 the cabinet kept the Box 3 rate at 36% for 2027.³ The tax-free allowance was €59,357 for 2026² and rises to €60,098 for 2027.³ The deemed return for 2027 is 1.27% on bank balances.³ It is 6.37% on other assets and 2.70% on debts.³ You may still report your real return if it is lower.⁵ The figures behind these rates sit one page over, not here.
The larger change is still ahead, and it moved again. The government aims to tax your real return instead of a fixed percentage. The bill set 1 January 2028 as the start date. On Budget Day 2026 the cabinet postponed the reform.⁴ It asked the Eerste Kamer, the Senate, to hold the bill.⁴ The next word is expected with the Voorjaarsnota in spring 2027. Treat 2028 as an open date, not a promise.
Three pages carry Box 3 in full. The current figures and the question of which assets count sit on Box 3 assets. The reform itself and its route through parliament sit on Box 3 reform. Is your real return lower than the deemed return, the fixed percentage the Belastingdienst starts from? Reporting your actual return shows you how to declare it.⁵
Budget Day Netherlands: what else changed?
The Belastingplan 2027 reaches much further than Box 3. It touches your home, your business, your allowances, your brackets and your pension. Below you find the headline figure per theme, with its source. The full explanation and every other figure live on the page that owns the theme.
- Housing and transfer tax
- For 2027 the transfer tax on homes you buy but do not live in yourself drops from 8% to 7%.³ The mortgage interest deduction stays as it is. The eigenwoningforfait, the imputed rental value of your own home, sits on its own page.
- Entrepreneur and self-employed deductions
- For 2027 the innovation box for SMEs widens from €25,000 to €100,000.³ The energy investment deduction rises from 40% to 45%.³
- Allowances
- The government resets the healthcare, rent and childcare allowances and the income limits every year.
- Purchasing power and income tax brackets
- For 2027 the first bracket rate goes from 35.75% to 36.23%.³ The second goes from 37.56% to 38.16%.³ The maximum labour tax credit rises from €5,685 to €5,929, and the top-rate threshold is frozen.³
- Pension
- The pensionable-salary cap was €137,800 in 2026.³ It is not indexed for 2027 to 2032, so tax-relieved pension building stops growing.³
- The 30% ruling and extraterritorial costs
- The Belastingplan 2027 adds no new step to the 30% ruling. The step-down for rulings that started in 2024 or later was decided earlier and sits on the 30% ruling page.
“Most people hear one headline on Budget Day and then wait to see what it means. We read the whole tax plan and go through it with you. That way you know what changes for your savings, your home and your pension before January.”
What happens after Budget Day?
Parliament takes over. The Tweede Kamer debates and votes on the Belastingplan first. The Eerste Kamer, the Senate, votes after it. Both chambers vote in the autumn of 2026. Measures get amended, postponed or dropped along the way. Once both chambers approve the plan, most measures take effect on 1 January 2027.³
September is not the only moment the plans move. In May the government publishes the Voorjaarsnota, the spring update to the budget. It sets the financial frame for the next Budget Day. We follow that moment on our page about the Spring Memorandum.
¹ rijksoverheid.nl, Prinsjesdag and the Miljoenennota · Accessed
² belastingdienst.nl, Box 3 figures for the 2026 tax year · Accessed
³ rijksoverheid.nl, Prinsjesdag: Belastingplan 2027 · Accessed
⁴ eerstekamer.nl, bill 36 748 Wet werkelijk rendement · Accessed
⁵ belastingdienst.nl, reporting your actual return (opgaaf werkelijk rendement) · Accessed
We go through the new tax year with you
Budget Day changes something for almost everyone, but rarely the same thing. A tax advisor goes through your own situation with you: your Box 3 wealth, your home, your pension and your 30% ruling. You get a clear picture of your next tax year and of what to arrange before 1 January. Want the figures first? Start with Box 3 assets.
