Meanwhile, ways are emerging to limit, using current and expected future legislation, the taxation of income from savings and investments (box 3) as much as possible.
Two sides
Currently, Box 3 has two ways of determining income from savings and investments:
- based on flat rate returns (main rule);
- based on the returns actually achieved (exception, which you as a taxpayer can claim.
By cleverly directing your actual returns, Box 3 tax can be reduced.
Cancel savings account
A simple example.
Suppose your assets in box 3 consist of a current account with Rabobank, which has a balance of €8,500 on 1 January 2025, and a savings account with the same bank with a balance of €255,000. Then your flat rate of return (provisional return for 2025) is: 1.44% ( €263,500 - €57,684) = €2,963. You pay 36% tax on this income: €1,066.
On the current account, the bank does not pay interest. On the savings account it does. Rabobank credits interest on 1 January each year for the year then ended. On 1 January 2025, the interest for 2024 is credited; on 1 January 2026, the interest for 2025.
Suppose the interest credited to the savings account is €3,000 for 2024 and €3,500 for 2025. Then in 2025 and 2026, the actual return achieved is higher than the flat-rate return. You will then pay box 3 tax on the standard return in both years.
But if you withdraw the savings account at the end of 2025, Rabobank will pay you the interest for 2025 at that time. The actual return achieved in 2025 will then be €3,000 + €3,500 = €6,500. You then pay box 3 tax on the fixed return in 2025. But when you open a new savings account at Rabobank in early 2026, the bank does not credit interest in 2026. You then pay box 3 tax in 2026 on your actual return of €0. You then “save” the levy on the fixed income in 2026, in this example €1,066.
Note!
There are of course caveats to this trick. The main one is that your actual return is based on your total box 3 assets (not on each asset separately). If you have other assets besides your bank balance, on which you earn returns, the trick will generally not work.
There is also the question of how banks handle the operations required for the trick. Booking larger amounts up and down can raise suspicions and lead to annoying questions from the bank or perhaps problems when opening new accounts.
Rent
Another trick involves rented property that is taxed in Box 3. By selling future rental payments, for example to your own private limited company, the actual returns achieved can be concentrated in one year, resulting in no returns in subsequent years. Of course, the sale of the rental tokens must actually take place and be based on business principles. And again, of importance is the note that for the actual return, the total box 3 assets are looked at.