End of year tax tips Netherlands: what to do before 31 December

End of year tax tips Netherlands: what still counts for this tax year?

You can still act on every lever that runs on the calendar year. Your Box 3 position, your deductions, your gifts and your pension room all close on the same date. After 1 January they belong to the next tax year. The year behind you no longer moves.

This page is about doing, not about reading up. What actually changed for the coming year sits on our pages about Budget Day and the tax changes. What you need to collect before you file sits on our end of year checklist. The mechanics of every measure below live on the page that owns the rule. We link to it each time.

Farid moved to Amsterdam three years ago. He has a savings account, a small investment account and a habit of giving to two charities. Two levers below apply to him at once, his gifts and his Box 3 check. Sequencing them is the hard part.

End of year tax tips Netherlands: which lever closes first?

Anything that needs a civil-law notary closes first. A periodic gift or a study gift counts only once you and the notary have signed the deed. Notaries fill up in December, so in practice this is a November decision.

Next come the levers that depend on money actually moving. Your bank has to take a lijfrente deposit off your account this year. A payment you start in the last week of December can easily land in January.

Only after those do the pure calendar levers close. Deductions, gifts within the yearly exemption and business investments all run to 31 December itself. The table below sorts every lever by its last useful moment.

Why does 1 January decide your Box 3 tax?

Box 3 looks at a single day: 1 January. What you own and what you owe on that morning fixes the levy for the whole year.¹³ A savings balance you spend on 2 January still counts in full.

Two reference dates sit next to each other here and they are easy to mix up. A second home in Box 3 carries its own WOZ value, the municipal valuation of the property. That value has a reference date a year earlier.¹⁴ The Box 3 date itself is always 1 January of the tax year.

There is a second reason to look before the year turns. You may report your actual return instead of the deemed return. The Hoge Raad, the Dutch Supreme Court, has ruled that the tax-free allowance then falls away completely.¹ For a smaller portfolio that changes the whole calculation. It is worth working out before you decide.

For the figures and for which assets belong in Box 3, read Box 3 assets. We explain reporting your real return on your actual return in Box 3. Farid's savings and investments count as they stand on 1 January. Accounts abroad count too, as long as you live here on that date. Arrived or left during the year or on the 30% ruling? Then check first how Box 3 applies to you this year. What you arrange this year counts only at next year's reference date.

Which costs do you have to pay before 31 December?

Healthcare costs and charitable gifts only count in the year you pay them.⁴⁵ An invoice that arrives in December and that you pay in January belongs to next year's return. That single rule turns a payment date into a tax decision.

It also opens a lever most people miss. Both healthcare costs and ordinary gifts carry a threshold per year.⁴ ⁵ Small amounts spread over two years can fall under it twice. Bringing two years of giving into a single year clears the threshold once and leaves the rest deductible.

Farid gives to two charities every year and neither gift clears the threshold on its own. Moving one of the two forward into this year would clear it once. Next year he starts fresh.

Your pension room works the same way on the date and differently on the amount. Your jaarruimte is the amount you may put into a lijfrente and deduct this year. Reserveringsruimte is the room you did not use in earlier years. A deposit only counts in the year your bank takes the money.⁶ Anything above your jaarruimte plus reserveringsruimte disappears as a deduction for good.⁶ So work out your room first, use reserveringsruimte before jaarruimte and only then transfer.⁶

More on what you can deduct sits on tax deductions in the Netherlands. We explain your pension room on the pension gap.

Can you still make a tax-free gift this year?

A gift counts as long as the money reaches the other person this year. The yearly exemptions run per calendar year and they do not carry over.³ A gift you skip in December is simply gone.

Two of the exemptions need more than a transfer. The one-off gift for an expensive study has to sit in a notarial deed that names the study.³ A periodic gift needs a deed as well. Only then does it escape the threshold and the yearly maximum.³

The exemptions themselves sit on tax-free gifting. The detail per relationship sits on gift tax. The table above covers the unconditional yearly and one-off amounts. The deed-only study exemption has its own separate limit.

Which levers are left for an entrepreneur in December?

Three levers decide your result and two of them run out on 31 December. Your investments, your hours and your VAT position follow the calendar year. Each one rewards a decision made this month rather than next.

Investments come first. The table below carries the thresholds.

Hours come second. Without the hours criterion you lose the zelfstandigenaftrek. See the hours criterion and the self-employed deduction.

VAT comes third. Leaving the small businesses scheme (KOR) takes four weeks, so decide early in December. See the small businesses scheme.

This applies to entrepreneurs who pay income tax, not to DGAs with a BV. If you file as a business, our self-employed tax return page shows how we handle it.

This year's rates and brackets are on our page about Dutch tax rates.