Eigenwoningforfait
The amount the tax office adds to your income for living in your own home. Your municipality's WOZ value drives it.
Owning a home in the Netherlands
The tax office treats the home you live in as Box 1 income, not as Box 3 wealth. We show what it adds, what comes off and which page covers each part.
Written by
Menno van der MadeHead of Tax - Tax Consultant
Reviewed by
Jessy te PaskeHead of Client Success
Updated 31 August 2026
How is this page fact-checked?
We check every page for accuracy, timeliness and relevance. Each one is written and reviewed by our qualified advisors, so the information stays clear, complete and correct.
Fact-checked against
Read our editorial standards- belastingdienst.nl (the Dutch Tax Administration)
Updated 31 August 2026
Your tax position
The tax office treats your home as income
Own the home you live in? The Dutch tax office treats it as income in Box 1. It is not wealth in Box 3. That one distinction drives everything below. Two things happen at the same time. The tax office adds a percentage of your WOZ value, the eigenwoningforfait, to your income. Your mortgage interest and qualifying financing costs then come off again.
You pay tax on the balance between those two halves, never on one half alone. The Dutch name for that balance is the saldo eigen woning. With a large mortgage the balance is usually negative. The home then lowers your taxable income instead of raising it. Once the mortgage is largely repaid the balance turns positive and the home starts costing you tax. A rule called Wet Hillen still softens that. It shrinks a little every year.
The calculation runs in one line. Eigenwoningforfait minus deductible interest and costs equals your taxable income from the home.
Three numbers set that line for 2026. For most homes the eigenwoningforfait is 0.35% of your WOZ value. That is the valuation your municipality sets, measured on 1 January 2025. You deduct the interest in full. The rate you get it back at stops at 37.56%. That cap applies once your Box 1 income before deductions passes €78,426.
A home counts as your eigen woning on two conditions. You or your fiscal partner own it. It is your main residence. You can hold only one main residence at a time. A second property goes to Box 3.
Once you no longer live there, your home usually moves to Box 3. That happens when you let out the whole house. It also happens when it becomes a holiday or second home. Moving abroad can do the same. There are exceptions to that main rule.
Moved house but not yet sold the old one? The moving rule keeps that home in Box 1 while it sits empty and up for sale. It runs for a limited number of years, so you hold two homes in Box 1 for a while. Posted abroad for a time? The posting rule can keep your Dutch home in Box 1 while it stays empty and available to you. Letting out one room keeps a home in Box 1 too. Each case has its own page below.
The two halves
What is added and what comes off
Start here if you live in the house and still carry a mortgage. These six pages cover both halves of the calculation.
Take the eigenwoningforfait first, then the deductions. The rest answers what comes up once you see your own figures.
Homeowner tax deductions
The full list of costs you may take off. That runs from the interest itself to the one-off costs of the loan.
Mortgage interest deduction
How the interest deduction works, which loans qualify and why the deduction rate has a ceiling.
Penalty interest
Paid a boeterente to switch or repay early? It counts as a financing cost, with conditions worth checking first.
Notary costs
Only part of a notary bill belongs to the mortgage. This page separates the deductible part from the rest.
Provisional assessment
A negative balance does not have to wait for your annual return. A voorlopige aanslag pays it back monthly instead.
The boundary
When your home is more than where you live
The Box 1 treatment holds only for the home you actually live in. Different rules take over when you let it out, buy a second place or release your surplus value.
The move is rarely all-or-nothing. These pages draw each line.
Renting out your own house
What changes when you let the whole house. What stays the same when you let one room.
Rental income tax
How the Dutch system taxes rental income. This page also shows when the property moves to Box 3.
Second home tax
A holiday home or second property in the Netherlands or abroad is wealth, not income. This page explains what follows.
Surplus value
The overwaarde is the value above your remaining debt. What you do with it decides how the tax office treats it.
When things change
Buying, selling, building or moving on
Every move in or out of a house has its own tax moment. That is separate from the yearly position above. Buying triggers transfer tax and your first return as an owner. Selling triggers the bijleenregeling, the rule on reusing your sale profit. Building triggers a construction deposit.
Two cases start in the same place. Moved out with the old home still up for sale? Arrived in the Netherlands the year you bought? Start with the page on your first return. Otherwise open the page that matches your situation. Your standing position picks up again the following year.
Tax return after buying a house
Your first return as an owner, plus the one-off costs you can claim only in the year of purchase.
Transfer tax
What you pay on the purchase itself and why the rate depends on whether you will live there.
Bijleenregeling
Sold a home with equity in it? The rule decides how much of your next mortgage still earns the interest deduction.
Construction deposit
A bouwdepot funds building work from your mortgage. The interest on it follows its own timetable.
Ground lease
If you pay erfpacht on the land under your home, that payment has its own place in the calculation.
Family mortgage
Borrowing from a parent can work, on terms the tax office recognises. This page sets out those terms.
Online now
“People come to me sure they owe wealth tax on their house. Usually the house is lowering their bill. They have been waiting a year to see it. I would rather you knew that a year earlier.”
Menno van der Made
Tax advisor
EN · NL
Your advisor
Not sure where your home fits?
Most homes are straightforward. Some are not: a room let out, a year abroad, a property in another country, a mortgage that is nearly repaid. Talk it through with a dedicated advisor who knows the eigen woning rules.
Frequently asked
Questions homeowners ask us
Six questions we answer most often about the home you live in. Yours not here? Ask Menno
Is my home in Box 1 or Box 3?
The home you live in belongs in Box 1. As a rule Box 3 holds property you own but do not live in. Think of a holiday home, a rented-out flat or a plot of land. The test is not ownership, it is whether the house is your main residence. A few exceptions keep a home you left in Box 1 for a while.
Do I still pay tax on my home once the mortgage is repaid?
Yes. That surprises most owners. With little or no interest left to deduct, the eigenwoningforfait has almost nothing to work against. The balance then turns positive. The Wet Hillen taper is what softens it. The page on the eigenwoningforfait shows where that rule stands now.
What happens to my home if I move abroad?
It can stay in Box 1. That works only while it stays empty and available to you. The rule for a posting abroad, the uitzendregeling, sets no end date. It holds as long as you lived there before you left and intend to return. Let it to someone else and the regime ends. Re-emptying the house does not bring it back until you live there again.
Does the value of my home count towards my wealth?
Not while it is your main residence. The value of the house you occupy stays out of Box 3. So does the equity in it. Only the yearly balance from the calculation above reaches your income.
Can I let a room and keep the interest deduction?
Often yes, under the room-letting exemption. Letting one room in the house you live in can leave the home in Box 1. The interest deduction keeps running and the rent stays untaxed up to a yearly limit. Letting the whole house is a different matter entirely.
What if I also own a home in another country?
Only one home can be your main residence. The other one goes to Box 3. A Dutch resident declares foreign property as wealth. A treaty usually decides which country may tax it. The mortgage on that home usually counts as a Box 3 debt.
Next step
Know your position before you file
We work out your own balance for the year, mortgage side and tax side together. Then we tell you what it means for your return. Is a monthly refund worth having? Then we arrange it with you.
What's included
A dedicated advisor
Your tax return and your mortgage in one conversation
Help in English or Dutch