Netherlands won’t increase inheritance tax, Finance Min. says despite mounting estates
“This Cabinet is not going to tamper with inheritance tax,” Finance Minister Eelco Heinen (VVD) told RTL Z after a CPB study found that more than half of Dutch support increasing this tax, and a broad majority support higher taxes for larger estates.
According to Statistics Netherlands (CBS), the total annual inherited wealth increased by approximately €10 billion between 2013 and 2022. This amount is expected to increase significantly in the coming years.
Tampering with inheritance tax is “the wrong discussion,” Heinen told RTL Z. “In the Netherlands, we don't have a problem with collecting too little tax, but we spend too much,” he said. “To address that, we need to reform, and that is what the political discussion should be about right now. Not just what you can keep taxing. We are already doing enough of that. Let’s really look at the expenditures now.”
According to Heinen, the Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis (CPB) is very good at forecasting economic growth and purchasing power, but it is not a polling agency. Stick to what you know, Heinen said about the CPB. “It is up to the politicians to decide.”
Increasing inheritance tax is not included in the Jetten I Cabinet’s coalition agreement, the VVD Minister added. “We did not intend to do it, and we are not going to do it,” he said.
Most estates in the Netherlands are exempt from tax for various reasons, usually because they are smaller than €25,000. According to the CPB, tax returns are filed for the inheritances of only 35 percent of the deceased. But these inheritances comprise an estimated 75 percent of inherited wealth.
