What is the spring memorandum?
The spring memorandum is the cabinet's mid-year budget update, not a law. It names the measures the cabinet wants and sets out how it plans to pay for them. On the day it appears, none of it applies.
A spring memorandum normally appears by the end of May. This one arrived unusually early. Finance minister Heinen presented it on 27 March 2026. It doubled as this cabinet's first Startnota. That is its opening statement on where the budget should go.
This page stops at the proposal. Budget Day picks the story up in September. The page on tax changes carries what is actually in force. The mechanics of each rule stay on the page that explains it in full.
Adriana has lived in Utrecht for six years. She builds pension through her employer, keeps a savings buffer and wants to help her sister with a deposit. The bracket correction below touches her. The pension ceiling could too. Neither asks her to do anything this year.
The short version
A spring memorandum measure is a plan. It becomes a rule only once both chambers of parliament have passed it.
This edition is a thin one for tax. It carries rate adjustments and corrections rather than a reform.
One measure reaches almost everyone. The cabinet wants to apply only part of the usual inflation correction to the tax brackets.
Two proposals look years ahead. They concern the healthcare-cost deduction and the salary ceiling for building pension.
The cabinet has already dropped one announced plan. Gifts of a home keep the municipal valuation as their basis.
How firm is a spring memorandum measure?
A measure in the spring memorandum is an intention and nothing more. The cabinet writes down what it wants. Parliament has voted on none of it.
From there a tax measure still has a long way to go. The Tweede Kamer, the Dutch lower house, debates the memorandum in the weeks after it appears. Measures that survive come back later as concrete tax plans. The lower house and the Eerste Kamer, the senate, both have to pass those plans. Only then does anything apply to you.
A proposal can be softened, delayed, split or dropped anywhere along that route. One proposal in this memorandum has already fallen away. The section on pension, property and gifts says which one.
| Stage | What happens | How firm it is |
|---|---|---|
| Spring memorandum | The cabinet publishes its mid-year budget update and names the measures it wants | An intention. Nothing applies yet |
| Debate in the Tweede Kamer | The lower house debates the memorandum and puts questions to the cabinet | Still an intention. Measures can change or fall away |
| Budget Day in September | The cabinet publishes its tax plans for the coming year | A concrete proposal, still not a rule |
| Passed by both chambers | The lower house and the senate vote the tax plans through | Only now is it something to plan around |
What does the spring memorandum propose for your income?
The measure that reaches most people is a smaller inflation correction on the tax brackets. Bracket boundaries normally move up with inflation each year. The cabinet proposes to apply that correction only in part and calls it a vrijheidsbijdrage, a contribution to freedom. In plain terms: a larger slice of your income lands in a higher bracket without your salary having changed. Employers would contribute through a higher AOF premium, the disability-fund contribution.
The second proposal touches your deductions. Specific healthcare costs are deductible today under strict conditions. There is also an allowance for people whose income is too low to use the deduction. The cabinet proposes to abolish both, several years out. If you claim that deduction now, deductible healthcare costs sets out what still qualifies. This page lists no measure that changes the 30-percent ruling.
What does the spring memorandum propose for pension, property and gifts?
Three further proposals sit closer to your assets than to your monthly pay. None of them applies yet and the cabinet has already dropped one of the three.
The first concerns the maximum salary on which you can still build tax-facilitated pension. That ceiling has stayed at the same level for several years. The cabinet proposes to extend the freeze for several more years. Higher earners feel it first, because pension above the ceiling is something you arrange yourself. Deducting annuity premiums sets out how much room you have to do that.
The second concerns transfer tax on homes you do not live in yourself. The cabinet proposes to lower that rate. The note below explains why we print no rate for it.
The third is a plan the cabinet has dropped. It would have valued a gifted home at open market value instead of at its WOZ-waarde, the official municipal valuation. Adriana's help for her sister is a cash gift rather than a home, so it would never have touched her. Filing a gift tax return explains what to report when you make the gift.
| Proposal | Who it touches | Proposed timing |
|---|---|---|
| Only part of the usual inflation correction on the tax brackets | Everyone who pays Box 1 tax, the tax on work and home income | In 2027 and 2028 |
| A higher AOF premium, the employer's disability-fund contribution | Employers | In the same two years |
| Abolition of the specific healthcare-cost deduction and the allowance that goes with it | Anyone claiming high, documented healthcare costs | From 2028 |
| A longer freeze on the maximum salary for building pension | Anyone still building pension above the salary ceiling | Runs on from the current freeze, up to and including 2032 |
| A lower transfer tax on homes you do not live in yourself | Owners of a second home or a rental property | From 2027 |
What does the cabinet say about tax structures?
The memorandum comes with an annex of tax structures the cabinet wants to examine. An annex changes no rule. It shows where the next round of measures is likely to come from.
For four of the practices on that list the cabinet is preparing measures. The first is gifting on paper, where you give an amount without moving it and pay interest on the debt. The second is a family loan on terms no bank would offer. The third is dividend stripping. There a shareholder changes ownership around the dividend date to avoid tax. The fourth is splitting a property portfolio across several BVs so that each one keeps its own interest deduction threshold.
Those four sit close to money held across a border. Family wealth often moves through paper gifts and loans inside the family. People hold property in a company as readily as in their own name. Reacting to an annex is not the useful move. Knowing where your own structure stands is. Adriana holds no company structure and has nothing to check this year.
Frequently asked
When does the spring memorandum appear?
In spring, normally by the end of May. This edition arrived earlier than usual because it doubled as the cabinet's first Startnota.
Is anything in the spring memorandum already law?
No. It sets out what the cabinet wants. A tax measure applies only once the Tweede Kamer and the Eerste Kamer have passed it.
How does the spring memorandum differ from Budget Day?
The memorandum proposes and Budget Day announces. The September announcement is the one parliament then votes on.
Do I need to change anything now?
Not on the strength of a proposal. The measures in this memorandum start in future years at the earliest and several can still change or fall away.
What is the vrijheidsbijdrage?
It is the cabinet's own name for applying only part of the annual inflation correction to the tax brackets. Employers would contribute through a higher AOF premium.
Know where you stand before the rules move
Most of what the spring memorandum proposes will not touch this tax year. What it does show is where the pressure is building. We go through your situation once and tell you what is worth watching. You are not committing to anything. Your situation may resemble Adriana's. Then watch the bracket correction and the pension ceiling.
