60,000 savers will be compensated €2.8 billion for too much asset tax

The approximately 60,000 people who objected to paying too much savings tax will get their overpaid money refunded, State Secretary Marnix van Rij of Finance said in a letter to parliament. This compensation will cost about 2.8 billion euros. The Cabinet is waiting for another Supreme Court ruling before deciding whether and how to compensate the hundreds of thousands of savers and investors who did not file objections to the savings tax they paid, RTL Nieuws reports.

The 60,000 people now receiving compensation lodged an objection with the Tax Authority against the savings tax, or capital gains tax, in the past. Some of these objections were submitted to the court to determine whether compensation is justified. That eventually led to the Supreme Court ruling that the government must refund the overpaid savings tax.

The problem with the savings tax lay in the Tax Authority using a fictitious return to calculate tax. But because interest on savings was historically low in the past years, sometimes even dipping into negative interest, savers paid taxes on returns they never received. For the 60,000 objectors, the Tax Authority will make a savings tax calculation on their actual returns, and the overpaid amount will be refunded.

If this method is also used on the people who have not objected, the Cabinet will have to spend an estimated 6.8 billion euros on compensation, according to the broadcaster. If big investors are also compensated, that amount could increase to nearly 12 billion euros.