What is my actual return?

By actual return ('werkelijk rendement'), we mean the real income you earn from your assets. This includes the change in value of your assets. For example: interest on your savings, dividends from your shares, or an increase in the value of your shares, second home, or cryptocurrencies.

This page explains how you can calculate your actual return.

We use the most favourable return for you

You pay tax on the return from your assets in Box 3. Until now, we have always worked with fixed percentages that are close to the actual return rates. This is called the notional return ('fictief rendement').

However, based on rulings of the Supreme Court (Hoge Raad), we must tax your actual return if it is lower than the notional return.

Until new legislation comes into effect for Box 3 (likely from 1 January 2028), we will continue to use the notional return, unless your actual return is lower. This is part of the rebuttal scheme ('Wet tegenbewijsregeling box 3').

You will never pay more tax than we previously calculated.

What counts as your actual return?

To calculate your actual return, we look at all income from your assets and all changes in value of your assets during 1 calendar year. Assets refer to your possessions, including your debts (only available in Dutch).

Your actual return includes:

• Income you received
  For example, interest on your savings account or dividends from your shares.
• Increases or decreases in the value of your possessions
  For example, an increase in the value of your second home. Or the rise in value of your cryptocurrencies or shares. These amounts can also be negative. For example, if the value of your cryptocurrencies or shares is lower at the end of the year than at the beginning.

We calculate the actual return on your total assets

With the notional return, part of your assets are always exempt. This is called the tax-free allowance ('heffingsvrij vermogen'). But for the actual return, there is no allowance. This has been decided by the Supreme Court (Hoge Raad). So we calculate the actual return on your total assets, without taking the tax-free allowance into account.

If you have a gain on 1 part of your assets and a loss on another, we off-set them against each other. If your total actual return is negative, your return is set to €0. You may not off-set a negative return from 1 year against a return from another year.

Did your assets change during the year?

To calculate the notional return, we only look at your assets and debts on 1 January (the reference date). What happens after that date is not included in the calculation of the notional return.

But for the actual return, we do include changes that happen during the tax year. For example: if you bought investments on 15 April 2024, the return on those investments is part of your actual return for 2024.

You may not deduct costs you incurred

When you report your actual return, you may not deduct any costs you incurred. For example:

• costs for buying or selling shares
• maintenance costs for your second home

There are two exceptions:

• Did you invest in your second home? And did this increase the WOZ value (WOZ-waarde) of your home?
  Then you may deduct that part of the increase from the WOZ value at the end of the year.
  You may only do this if you reported the investment to your municipality.
• Did you pay interest on a debt in Box 3? Then you may deduct that interest.

You choose whether to report your actual return

Reporting your actual return is not mandatory. You can decide for yourself if you want to do so. If you are allowed to report your actual return for a certain year, starting the summer of 2025, you will receive a letter from us. After you have received this letter, you can complete the form 'Opgaaf werkelijk rendement' (Submit Actual Return). This form is not pre-filled, like your income tax return. We do not have the required information for that.

To help you, we have made a checklist of what you need to fill out the form.

How is the actual return calculated?

In the 'Opgaaf werkelijk rendement' form, we calculate your actual return based on the information you provide. The form will also show whether your actual return is lower than the notional return

Want to see how it works?

Would you like to know how the actual return is calculated? Take a look at our examples with the most common situations. In these examples, we compare the actual return with the notional return.