Most donations made by rich Dutch to their children

Between 2007 and 2015 a total of 4.5 million euros in donations were made each year in the Netherlands. 80 percent of donors came from the top 20 percent wealthiest Dutch households. And in nearly half of the cases, the money ended up with someone else in this same group. 90 percent of donations went from parent to child, Statistics Netherlands reported on Monday.

On average 80 thousand donations were made in the Netherlands per year between 2007 and 2015. This only involved donations reported to the tax authorities. Due to the fiscal settlement of the donations, the data from 2015 is the most recent available to Statistics Netherlands.

While most of the donated money went from wealthy parents to rich children, the percentage of donations to people from the the 20 percent least wealthy households also increased in that period, from 5 percent in 2007 to 16 percent in 2014, and then back down to 13 percent in 2015. From 2011 onwards, these donations were mainly intended to help pay off mortgage debt. The receivers were more often less wealthy because they had a relatively high mortgage debt, according to the stats office.

With the introduction of the new inheritance and donation tax in 2010, many donations were taxed more heavily. But the tax free-amounts for donations intended to help pay study- or mortgage debts also increased. In total donations resulted in between 250 million and 350 million euros in taxes collected per year. In more than 30 percent of the cases, it was the donor who paid the taxes.

With regular donations, the donor is 65 years old or older in over 75 percent of the cases. The recipient is usually over the age of 40.