In the Netherlands, your savings and investments are treated as assets, and therefore taxed. In this article, I walk you through the thresholds up to which your savings and investments remain tax‑free. From there, I also explore several ways you can qualify for tax exemptions, helping you understand how to keep more of your money working for you.
Tax-Free Allowance (Heffingsvrij Vermogen)
Every Dutch resident is entitled to a tax-free capital allowance under Box 3 of the income tax system. For 2026, the tax-free allowance is €59,357 per person (or €118,714 for couples). This means you won’t pay tax on savings and investments below this threshold.
What counts toward Box 3?
- Savings accounts
- Stocks and bonds
- Investment funds
- Crypto
- Second homes
Your debts can also be deducted from your total assets and reduce your tax liability.
Green Investments (Groen beleggen)
If you invest your money in green investments you will get considerably less returns of about 0.4%. But an amount of these investments is tax free. For 2026 you can invest €26,715 in green investments. This amount comes on top of the €59,357 that you can have in your savings and investments. For couples or tax partners the extra amount is €53,430.
You can invest in green investments via the big Dutch banks like Rabobank, ABN AMRO and ING.
Pension Savings (Pension Sparen)
In the Netherlands the contributions to your pension that fall within your annual allowance are tax-deductible. You can deduct that amount from your income and instantly pay less tax.
Be sure to check your pension status at mijnpensioenoverzicht.nl .
Your pension may not be fully accrued from earlier years. This often means you haven’t made full use of your annual allowance. You might not have taken full advantage of your annual allowance. The good news? You still have the opportunity to catch up.
You’re allowed to gather unused annual allowance for up to ten years. To find out how much space you have available, use the calculation tool. You can find this tool on the Tax and Customs Administration’s website.
This means you can still make contributions for those earlier years, and deduct them from your gross income. That could lead to a significant reduction in your tax bill!
Stay savvy.
