Cryptocurrency in the Netherlands: wealth tax and regulation
In short. The Netherlands taxes what you hold, not what you earn. Your crypto sits in the wealth box, where the state assumes a 6% return for 2026 and charges 36% on that assumed figure. Sell at a profit and no capital gains tax follows. The first 59,357 euros of net wealth escape the calculation, and a replacement system taxing real returns is due in 2028.
- ASSUMED RETURN
- 6.00%on crypto and other investments, 2026
- TAX ON THAT
- 36%of the assumed return, not the gain
- TAX-FREE WEALTH
- 59,357 €per person, double for partners
- SELLING AT A PROFIT
- No taxthere is no capital gains tax here
- VALUATION DATE
- 1 Januarythe price that day sets the year's bill
- REPLACEMENT SYSTEM
- Due 2028would tax real returns, unrealised included
The tax lands on the holding
Most countries wait for you to sell. The Dutch tax office bills you every year on what sits in your wallet, whatever you did with it.
Crypto counts as an "other asset" in box 3, the part of income tax covering savings and investments. The state assumes those assets returned a set percentage, fixed at 6.00% for 2026, and taxes that assumed figure at 36%. Whether your portfolio doubled or halved changes nothing in the formula.
The first 59,357 euros of net wealth stay outside the calculation, and fiscal partners get 118,714 euros between them. Hold 150,000 euros of crypto with no partner and roughly 90,600 falls inside the net; six percent of that is about 5,400, and 36% of that comes to somewhere near 1,950 euros for the year.
The date that decides your bill
Your holding gets valued at midnight on 1 January, and that single snapshot fixes the whole year.
Buy heavily in February and this year's tax ignores it. Sell everything in March after a January peak and you still pay on the January figure. Dutch holders plan around the turn of the year for exactly this reason, which holders elsewhere rarely have cause to do.
When the assumption is wrong
An assumed return stops working once the real one diverges, and the courts made the state provide a remedy.
Under the counter-evidence rule you may show that your real return came in below the assumed 6%, and the tax office then uses the lower figure. Earn more than the assumption and the excess goes untaxed, because the levy stops at the assumed return. A strong crypto year can leave a Dutch holder paying less than a neighbour almost anywhere else.
A different system is coming in 2028
Parliament has been trying to replace this arrangement for years, and the replacement moved a long way in 2026.
The lower house adopted the bill on real returns on 12 February 2026, and the upper house has yet to deal with it. The target start date is 1 January 2028, having slipped from 2026 and then from 2027.
The new design taxes what you make in fact, counting regular income and the increase in value of your assets, including gains you have not realised. In June 2026 the state secretary sent both chambers a menu of softening measures: a one-year loss carry-back, a rate cut from 36% to 35%, and a rise in the tax-free result from 1,800 to 1,900 euros. The cabinet was due to choose among them in August 2026, so treat the final shape as unsettled.
What this means if you are moving there
A large portfolio that grows fast gets off lightly here, while a small one that sits flat still produces a bill.
Nothing you gain on a sale gets taxed as a gain, which suits someone realising a long-held position. Against that, you pay every year whether or not you sold, and a flat or falling market still produces a bill unless you invoke the counter-evidence rule. Anyone planning past 2027 should follow the replacement law, because taxing unrealised appreciation would reverse the advantage that draws people here now.
Allowed
- Sell crypto at a profit with no capital gains tax
- Keep up to 59,357 euros of net wealth outside the calculation, or 118,714 with a partner
- Prove a lower actual return and pay on that instead of the assumption
- Use any platform licensed under the European regime in any member state
Restricted
- Expecting the January valuation to follow the market during the year
- Claiming the counter-evidence rule without records of your actual return
- Assuming the current system survives past 2027
- Leaving crypto out of the wealth declaration, since it counts as an other asset
How the rules took shape
The tax authority confirms crypto belongs in box 3 as an other asset.
The Supreme Court rules against taxing assumed returns that diverge from reality.
The assumed return on other assets is set at 6.00%, taxed at 36%, with 59,357 euros exempt.
The lower house adopts the bill taxing real returns.
Target start for the new system, which would tax unrealised gains.
Worth knowing
In 2024 a Dutch court sentenced Tornado Cash developer Alexey Pertsev to 64 months for money laundering — the first case anywhere to hold a programmer personally liable for the code.
Common questions
Do I pay tax when I sell crypto at a profit?
No. The Netherlands has no capital gains tax on this. You pay each year on an assumed return from holding the asset instead.
How is the bill calculated?
Your net wealth above 59,357 euros is assumed to return 6.00% for 2026, and you pay 36% of that assumed amount.
Which day counts for valuation?
1 January. The value at midnight sets the whole year's tax, whatever the price does afterwards.
What if my actual return was lower?
You may prove it and pay on the real figure instead. Earn more than the assumption and the excess is not taxed.
What changes in 2028?
The planned system taxes real returns, including increases in value you have not realised. The lower house adopted it in February 2026 and the upper house has still to consider it.
Sources
Related reading
Other countries
Updated 20.08.2026 · this is reference material, not investment or tax advice