The private collection
Art that you keep for your own enjoyment falls outside box 3, the Dutch tax on assets. This applies as long as you keep the collection to enjoy it. Art stored only as an investment falls outside this treatment. The deciding factors are the use and your intention. Works on your walls, insured as household art and documented as a collection, keep the mild treatment.
Trading and investing
If you regularly buy art to sell it, you run a business. The results are taxed as profit. A BV is usually the right place for this, because costs, insurance and storage are deductible there. A holding company above the BV can then receive the gains later. See what a holding company does. Investment pieces that you keep privately in storage fall under the box 3 deemed return above €59,357 per person. Here too, your intention is the test.
Read about the holding, the participation exemption and the dividend paid to the parent company on the Dutch holding structure for non-residents. For the yearly paperwork, see corporate secretarial services in the Netherlands.
The notary, the Tax Administration and the bank all ask for the company address first. You choose that address and sign the contract yourself. See what the law asks of a business address in the Netherlands.
Lending and the legacy
When you lend works to museums, use written loan agreements, nail-to-nail insurance and condition reports when the work leaves and when it returns. When you lend works, you also show the private character of the collection. For the next generation, a collection foundation (stichting) can own the works under its own articles. The articles can arrange public access and a role for the family. A STAK, the Dutch foundation that issues depositary receipts, can keep the value with the heirs. See the stichting and asset protection and international estate planning.
Planning for the next generation? See how to set up a family office in the Netherlands.