Box 3 reform in the Netherlands: where it stands in 2026

Is the Box 3 reform actually happening?

Not yet. The Wet werkelijk rendement would replace Box 3's flat-rate system with your actual investment return. It has passed the Tweede Kamer, the Dutch House of Representatives. It's still waiting on a vote in the Eerste Kamer, the Dutch Senate. This page tracks one thing only, where the reform stands and what changes once it does. Our guide to Box 3 wealth tax covers the rate table and a worked calculation. Our guide to what falls in Box 3 covers which assets count. We don't repeat either explanation here. Take Sarah: she mainly wants to know when this changes for her.

How does Box 3 work while the reform is pending?

Box 3 still taxes savings, investments and other assets with a deemed return, not what you actually earned. Take Sarah, a marketing manager in Amsterdam with savings and a share portfolio. The Belastingdienst assumes a fixed return on her wealth today, whatever she actually made. She wants one answer: will this change and when? She can already report her real return instead of the deemed one, through the opgaaf werkelijk rendement, when it's lower. The bigger shift, taxing actual return by default, is what the pending law would make permanent.

What would the Wet werkelijk rendement actually change?

From the law's planned start, Box 3 would tax your real investment return instead of a fixed percentage. For most assets that means a vermogensaanwasbelasting: tax on the annual increase in value, whether you sell or not. Two exceptions get a vermogenswinstbelasting instead, tax only when you sell: a second home or rental property and shares in a start-up. Crypto stays under the accrual rule. Its yearly growth in value gets taxed each year (see our guide to crypto tax in the Netherlands). Rental property gets the sale-based exception instead (see renting out your own house).

Assets you hold outside the Netherlands also fall in Box 3 while you live here. A tax treaty can limit what the Netherlands may tax on foreign property.

What does the postponed vote actually mean?

The bill is still alive. On 7 July 2026, the Eerste Kamer rejected a motion that would have accepted withdrawing it. A majority of senators voted to keep it pending instead: GroenLinks-PvdA, VVD, D66, SP and ChristenUnie among them. State Secretary Eerenberg calls the current bill a "tussenstation", a waypoint toward a full capital-gains-style tax on wealth, not the end state. For Sarah, that means the shift toward real-return taxation is still coming. It just doesn't have a fixed date yet.

What happens next?

Budget Day 2026 brought a pause, not a launch. The cabinet postponed the reform and told the Eerste Kamer to hold the bill. The 1 January 2028 start date no longer applies. An update is expected with the Voorjaarsnota in spring 2027. We'll update this page the moment that changes.

What should you do about Box 3 today?

Nothing changes in your 2025 or 2026 tax return because of this bill. The current flat-rate system still applies, including the option to report your actual return. That stays true until parliament approves a new law and it takes effect. Your own home, taxed in Box 1, stays outside Box 3 either way. Sarah's takeaway is the same one we give every client. Book a free call to check your own Box 3 position now.