The Dutch government has dropped its plan to tax unrealized bitcoin gains and will tax investment profits only when sold, starting 2028, with direct crypto following in 2030, and PwC puts the bill for that reversal at 15 billion euros through 2035. Prime Minister Rob Jetten and Finance Minister Eelco Heinen confirmed in a September 29 letter to parliament that investment gains will be taxed only when sold from 2028, with direct crypto following in 2030. What nobody has answered yet is where the money comes back, and that gap is now the main fault line in the coalition talks.
What was dropped
Earlier this year the Netherlands advanced the Actual Return in Box 3 Act, a reform that would have taxed annual investment returns at 36 percent, covering paper gains too. It passed the lower house in February, then stalled in the Senate. A bitcoin holder whose position doubled would have owed tax on the rise without selling anything.
Investors and tax advisers pushed back on two grounds, liquidity and forced sales. A rally followed by a drawdown would have left holders owing tax on a price that no longer existed, and paying it could have meant selling into a falling market to raise the cash. The Jetten and Heinen letter framed the whole reversal as a way to keep the Netherlands a place where investment is supported rather than punished for appreciation that has not been cashed out.
How dutch crypto tax works now
Crypto sits in Box 3 today, the Netherlands’ wealth tax, which does not tax actual profit. It uses a deemed return instead: a notional 6.00 percent return on holdings for 2026, taxed at 36 percent. The exemption threshold sits at 59,357 euros per person, 118,714 euros for a couple, and applies to Box 3 wealth, not just crypto. Anyone trading as a business falls under different rules, up to 49.5 percent, and mining income has always been treated as business income rather than wealth.
The switch, securities first in 2028 and direct crypto plus remaining Box 3 assets in 2030, replaces that model for most investors. PwC’s projections put the budget hole at 15 billion euros through 2035. Lowering the tax-free threshold is one option under discussion to offset part of that, a move that would bring smaller investors into the tax net for the first time.
Not yet law
The plan is not law yet. Jetten’s coalition lacks a majority in both chambers, so the cabinet needs opposition votes to move the revised system through.
Crypto holders keep the deemed-return system for 2026 regardless, since the 2028 start leaves existing rules in place until then. The Belastingdienst has not published transition guidance yet, and fine print on cost basis, loss carryforwards and valuing coins across the switch date will matter more than any headline rate. Parliament has not settled on a budget offset, and coalition partners are divided over the lever to pull first: a higher deemed rate, a lower exemption, or a bigger deficit through 2035.
| Old plan (dropped) | New plan (proposed) | |
|---|---|---|
| What is taxed | Annual returns, incl. paper gains | Gains only when realized |
| Rate | 36% | 36% |
| Stocks and bonds | From 2028 | From 2028 |
| Direct crypto | From 2028 | From 2030 |
The practical side for a dutch bitcoin holder
Until then, the annual return Dutch investors file bears little resemblance to a crypto profit-and-loss sheet. The tax office taxes a fixed assumed return on wealth, so a holder who bought at 20,000 euros and watched it trade at 90,000 pays the same deemed amount as a neighbour holding the same balance in cash. Realized-gains taxation changes the record-keeping burden completely: every acquisition, transfer and sale becomes a tax event, with exchanges on the front line of that paperwork.
The two-year gap, securities in 2028 and crypto in 2030, creates a planning window too. A Dutch investor holding an index fund and a hardware wallet will file one set of numbers for the fund and a different set for the coins, for two tax years. The letter leaves room for the dates to shift as the bill works its way through both chambers, and the Senate committee handling it has already scheduled hearings for November. Anyone filing a Dutch return for 2026 should assume the deemed-return model applies to this year and the next one.
Why bitcoin holders outside the netherlands care
The Dutch reversal lands in a quarter when governments are probing the limits of crypto taxation. Brazil went to the polls under tight reporting rules of its own, India’s central bank meets this week with a hawkish bias, and US exchanges are filing products nobody could have filed a year ago. Tax design is quieter, but it moves capital just the same. A country taxing paper gains on illiquid assets pushes holders to relocate or sell. A country waiting for realization keeps them where they are.
The Netherlands is not the first to walk this back, but it names its reason in public, fear of liquidity problems and forced sales in volatile markets, and then hands the resulting bill to a coalition yet to produce an offset for it. For bitcoin holders, the effect is simple either way. Owning is no longer the taxable event. Selling is, starting 2030 at the earliest, provided the plan survives parliament intact.