Dutch homeowners will pick up a net tax advantage worth roughly €9 billion this year, according to a new report from the government’s economic planning agency CPB, which concludes that the Netherlands’ tax system is failing to slow rising inequality and in some ways is reinforcing it.
The report uses several years of CPB studies on income, wealth and tax. It finds that the share of total income going to the top 1% rose from 12% to 15% between 2011 and 2019.
The €9 billion figure represents the net cost to the treasury of mortgage interest relief minus a small notional levy on owner-occupied homes. CPB argues that this subsidy feeds into house prices rather than easing access for new buyers.
Against this, councils raised about €3 billion last year through property tax, and households paid just under €2 billion in transfer tax. Home prices have risen roughly fivefold since 1995, and net housing equity held by Dutch households now stands at around €1.4 trillion.
Inheritance
As prices have climbed, the gap between owners and renters has widened – and so has the gap between those who inherit and those who don’t. Children of parents in the top 1% of wealth reach the 82nd percentile on their own, the report says; children of parents in the top 0.01% reach the 96th.
The bedrijfsopvolgingsregeling, a tax break for passing on a family business, allows a €1.5 million tax free transfer with 75% relief above that. It costs the treasury around €1.1 billion in 2026 and benefits only a few thousand people, the report says.
Wealth held inside private companies – concentrated in the wealthiest households – has grown about 2.5 times in real terms since 2006, while taxable savings and investments have shrunk slightly.
Reform
CPB sets out two reform directions. The first is to scrap or replace tax breaks that fail to deliver on their stated goals – the agency puts the total cost of fiscal arrangements at roughly €167 billion in 2025, around 40% of all tax revenue – and to close off the structures that let owners of private companies defer tax for years.
The second goes further, taxing different forms of income and wealth more equally and tightening reliefs on family-business transfers. The report does not pick one path, but says the current system causes unnecessary economic distortion.
The agency warns of long-term risks if the trends continue, including weaker equality of opportunity and erosion of public trust in the tax system.
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