Already fear of delaying the introduction of the intended successor of the savings tax | Financial

This is evident from a technical briefing about the new wealth tax that the Ministry of Finance issued on Monday in the House of Representatives. In their agreement, the coalition parties have agreed to levy capital on actual returns from 2025. But the ministry is already ‘behind the original schedule’, says Finance official Jan Melsen in the House. “Despite the maximized effort, the new box 3 system faces major challenges in implementing it in a timely and sound manner.”

State Secretary Marnix van Rij (Finance) wants to introduce a so-called capital gains tax from 2025. In it, people pay tax on the ‘income’ actually obtained from their assets, such as interest and dividend. But also about the increase in value of, for example, an equity portfolio or real estate.

Last autumn, the Ministry of Finance had an investigation into whether it should be feasible to introduce this new wealth tax as of 2025, but more than a month later, the Supreme Court slashed the current tax. This provides the tax authorities with loads of extra work: savers must be compensated and emergency legislation must be introduced to be able to continue levying the tax.

These setbacks threaten to be at the expense of the timely introduction of the new box 3 tax. The condition of the tight schedule was that ‘there would be no extra work’, says Melsen. “And with the judgment of the Supreme Court, we all know what extra work has been carried out this six months.” A new study will therefore be carried out into the feasibility of planning.

Care in the room

It worries the House of Representatives on Monday afternoon. “It is still quite a tight schedule,” says D66 MP Romke de Jong. Pieter Omtzigt wonders what the ‘realistic time frame’ is: “Are we still on course or have we already blown out?” Civil servant Melsen cannot yet answer that question, but he indicates that other ICT repairs may have to remain in place to reach 2025: “If the choice is made that other activities are given a lower priority, extra resources free. Then we really have to see whether the time frame that remains is sufficient.”

There are also concerns about the temporary emergency legislation that is being set up in order to be able to levy wealth tax until the transition to the new system. “There are disadvantages to this,” says Groot in response to questions from CU MP Pieter Grinwis. For example, investors can sell their investments just before the reference date and put the money in the savings account, on which they have to pay less, and then immediately turn it back. And with the temporary legislation there is also the risk of lawsuits, because investments are all valued the same regardless of their actual return. “There is still a legal vulnerability,” says civil servant Groot. “So whether this can last for 2 or 3 years is also a black box.”

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