Tax-free savings in the Netherlands

How much savings can you have tax free in the Netherlands?

Your first €59,357 of wealth carries no Box 3 tax in 2026.¹ With a fiscal partner you share a combined allowance of €118,714.¹ The Belastingdienst (the Dutch tax authority) leaves that part of your wealth alone. That allowance is the heffingsvrij vermogen, the tax-free wealth allowance. It covers everything you own in Box 3 minus your debts, not your savings alone. We keep to one category on this page: money in a bank or savings account. The wider picture sits on our page about Box 3 and what counts as your assets. A fiscal partner is your spouse or registered partner. Unmarried housemates qualify only if they meet the Belastingdienst conditions.

Take Priya. She holds €100,000 in a Dutch savings account on 1 January 2026, with no partner and no debts. Priya moved to the Netherlands in 2024 and closed her account back home. We follow her through every step below and finish with the exact amount she pays.

What counts as savings and what does not?

Money in any bank or savings account counts, in the Netherlands or abroad.² That allowance only means something once you know what Box 3 counts. The Belastingdienst splits Box 3 into three groups: savings, investments and debts. Your current account, your savings account and a fixed-term deposit sit in the first group. Shares and funds sit in the second, together with crypto and a second home. Your own home and your pension fall outside Box 3 altogether. The Netherlands taxes what you own rather than what you gain. We explain that difference on no capital gains tax in the Netherlands.

Only one day of the year counts. The Belastingdienst reads your balance on 1 January, not your average across the year and not your year-end total.² That date is the peildatum, the reference date. Money that arrives on 2 January belongs to the following tax year.

Each group inside Box 3 carries its own deemed return. A euro in savings and a euro in shares cost you different amounts. A single allowance then covers all of them together.

Which figures apply to savings in the Netherlands in 2026?

Savings count at a fixed 1.28% in 2026, whatever your bank paid.² So what does the Belastingdienst do with that percentage? It assumes that return on your savings and taxes the outcome at 36%.² That assumed percentage is the forfaitair rendement, the deemed return.

The deemed return differs sharply per group and savings carry the lowest of the three.² Of the three deemed returns, only the one for investments is final for 2026.² The table below sets out the numbers that decide your bill.

What do you actually pay on your savings?

Savings above the allowance cost you 0.4608% a year.² That single figure reframes the whole subject. We derive it ourselves: 1.28% multiplied by the 36% Box 3 rate.² The Belastingdienst publishes both parts and never the result.

Priya holds €100,000 on 1 January 2026. Her first €59,357 stays free, so €40,643 is taxable.¹ The deemed return on that amount is €520. Tax at 36% comes to €187 for the year.² Most people brace for a four-figure amount.

Doubling her balance does not double her bill. At €200,000 she would pay €648.² The allowance comes off once, so the effective cost creeps up as the balance grows. The table below walks through her calculation step by step. Your own mix of savings and investments decides how close you land to that number. This sum only holds if you own savings and nothing else.

Why does the simple sum break with mixed assets?

The Belastingdienst averages your return across everything you own.² Add a single investment and that neat sum falls apart. Priya's calculation worked because she holds savings and nothing else. The real method adds up the deemed return on each category first. It then divides that total by your whole Box 3 wealth to get one average percentage. Only then does it apply that average to the part above the allowance.

Say Priya moves €40,000 of her balance into index funds. Her savings still count at 1.28%, but that €40,000 now counts at 6.00%.² The shortcut still says €187 for the year. The Belastingdienst method lands at €464, almost two and a half times as much. Most quick calculators skip that step entirely.

We work through a full mixed calculation on our page about Box 3 and what counts as your assets. If your wealth is large or spread across several countries, start instead with substantial assets. Move one holding and the whole calculation shifts. The €464 above is €768 of deemed return on savings plus €2,400 on investments. That is €3,168 of deemed return on wealth of €100,000. She owes tax on the same share of that return as €40,643 is of €100,000. That share is €1,288, and 36% of it gives €464. Her remaining €60,000 in savings produces the €768 of deemed return above.

Does your savings account back home count?

Savings outside the Netherlands count exactly like Dutch ones.² What about the account you left behind when you moved? The Belastingdienst puts bank and savings balances outside the Netherlands in the same category as Dutch balances.² The same 1.28% applies and the same reference date of 1 January.

If you live in the Netherlands, your worldwide wealth belongs in Box 3. If Priya still held an account back home, it would count at the same 1.28%, in whatever currency it sits.² Nothing arrives in the post to remind you, so this is the item internationals most often leave out.

The country where the bank sits may tax the interest as well. A tax treaty then decides which country may tax what. Which treaty applies depends on the country and the type of asset. We read yours before you file. Your arrival year works differently, because you were not a resident all year. Your first Dutch year usually counts only from the day you arrived. We work out which part of your arrival year counts before you file. We prorate your Box 3 wealth if you leave during the year.

Can you pay tax on your real return instead?

You may report your real return for 2026 through your tax return.³ Everything above rests on an assumed percentage. There is a legal route around it. That route is the tegenbewijsregeling, the counter-evidence rule. If your real return is lower than the deemed return, the Belastingdienst uses the lower figure.³ You do not pay more than the amount already calculated for you.³

The route does not help everyone. For a savings-only holder like Priya, it usually gains nothing. If the interest on her account sits above 1.28%, her real return is higher than the deemed one. Filing it would then leave her exactly where she started.

Three limits make the route narrower than it looks. You may not deduct the costs of holding your assets, apart from a narrow set of exceptions.³ The Belastingdienst sets a negative total return to zero.³ It also cannot apply the route to a provisional assessment, the voorlopige aanslag.³ We cover the mechanics in full on how the real-return route works.

What happens to savings after 2026?

The move to taxing your actual return was planned for 1 January 2028.³ On Budget Day 2026 the cabinet postponed it. It asked the Eerste Kamer to hold the bill. That date is now open. The next word is expected in spring 2027.

For your 2026 savings it changes nothing at all. You file under the current rules and the figures on this page. We explain the proposal and its timing on the postponed Box 3 reform.

What should you check before 1 January?

Check what you will hold on 1 January, across every account.² So what is actually left for you to decide? Three things settle most cases. Add up every balance you hold worldwide, not only the Dutch ones. Work out whether anything other than savings sits in your Box 3 wealth, because that changes the average. Then check whether your interest actually sits below 1.28%, because only below that does the other route pay.

For a straightforward savings balance you can do all three yourself with the figures on this page. It gets harder once you hold investments, property abroad or a fiscal partner to divide wealth with. That is the point at which wealth tax advice earns its fee. Extra repayment on a mortgage lowers your Box 3 wealth too. Whether that is wise depends on your interest rate and your buffer. We weigh that trade-off on mortgage advice.