The tax plans presented by the Cabinet on Budget Day 2015 consist of 5 bills. The most important are the Tax plan 2016 and the Other fiscal measures 2016. We will not tire you with the adjustments of all the figures (rates, exemptions and the like). The general message is that many taxpayers will gain in purchasing power in 2016.
Below are briefly the main substantive measures, most of which, incidentally, had already been leaked before Budget Day.
The RDA (Research and Development Deduction) will be integrated into the R&D deduction.
The emigration leakage that arises in income tax on the emigration of substantial interest holders is being combated. Profit distributions by the company after emigration result in income tax being due. And the protective assessment imposed as a result of emigration will no longer lapse automatically after a lapse of 10 years. This measure applies to emigrations from 15 September 2015.
The box 3 tax rate will be revised from 1 January 2017. The rate will remain 30%, but it will be calculated on flat-rate returns, the amount of which depends on the size of the assets to be taxed in box 3.
Of the box 3 assets, €25,000 exempt. Above this exemption, the flat rate of return on assets up to €100,000 is: (approximately) 2.9%. Between €100,000 and €1,000,000: (approximately) 4.7% and above €1,000,000: 5.5%. The word “approximately” has been added for two reasons. For one, the lump-sum returns are in fact based on actual average returns, which are obviously not yet definitively known for 2017. And on the other hand, for the purpose of distributing the €25,000 exemption, the actual flat rate is determined via a specific calculation, so the exact rate depends on the amount of box 3 assets.
These flat-rate returns will be adjusted annually from 2017 to reflect actual returns.
The rates described apply per tax partner. This means that per partner €25,000 of box 3 assets are exempt. But that also per partner for the assets in box 3 below €100,000 and €1,000,000 respectively, the lower flat rates apply.
The higher flat-rate returns (than the current 4%) above a box 3 asset of €125,000 (€250,000 for tax partners) are prompting an increasing number of taxpayers to transfer their box 3 assets to a B.V.
In gift tax, with effect from 2017, the €100,000 exemption will return for gifts relating to a donee's own home. This exemption will not be limited to children of the donor, but the donee must be between 18 and 40 years old.
Business car drivers may be eagerly awaiting the details of the Autobrief 2.0 presented by State Secretary for Finance Wiebes just before the summer holidays, which we described in our article Autobrief II. Those measures will be included in a bill that is not ready at the moment. That bill, however, has been announced for the autumn.
For large companies, corporate tax proposals are important. This concerns resolving within the EU the problems caused by hybrid loan mismatches. This arises when one member state qualifies the loan as equity, while in the other it is a money loan. This is solved in the Netherlands by making the participation exemption inapplicable to fees charged against profits at the participation.
It also seeks to apply anti-abuse provisions more consistently.
Significant interest holders who sell their shares can no longer escape their joint and several liability for corporate tax liabilities related to a reinvestment reserve or a hidden reserve associated with assets disposed of within 6 months of the share transfer. This change takes effect on 15 September 2015.