Is it better to invest through a BV or privately in box 3?

Above roughly 300,000 to 400,000 euros of investments, or with a return well above the deemed return, the BV usually keeps more: it pays 19% on the real return and box 2 only when you take money out, while box 3 taxes a deemed 6% at 36% every year. Below that, the yearly costs of a BV and box 2 at the end eat the difference.

What changes in box 3 in 2028?

The plan is to tax the real return, interest, dividend and gains, at 36%, instead of a deemed return. The bill is in the senate and the government presents changes on Budget Day 2026.

Box 3 or BV Calculator: Where Should Your Investments Grow? (2026 and 2028)

Box 3 or BV: where should your money grow?

Privately, the tax office taxes a deemed return every year, whether you earned it or not. In a BV you pay 19% on what you really earn, and nothing more until you take the money out. Fill in three numbers and see the difference after five, ten or twenty years.

Short answerBox 3 in 2026: 36% on a deemed return (about 6% for investments, about 1.28% for savings) above the tax-free amount of €59,357 per person; if your real return is lower, you may prove it. BV: 19% corporate tax on the real return (25.8% above €200,000), and box 2 of 24.5% to 31% only when you take the profit out. From 2028 box 3 is meant to tax the real return at 36%. Source: Dutch tax office and the Tax Plan 2026, checked 5 September 2026.

Box 3 or BV

Rates 2026; box 3 from 2028 as planned.

1. Amount you invest

€

2. What is it?

3. Expected return per year

4. How many years does the money stay invested?

yrs

5. Tax partner?

6. Do you already have a holding BV?

7. Which box 3 system?

Result

…

Three things to know

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A first picture, with the 2026 rates: box 3 36% on a deemed return of about 6% (investments) or 1.28% (savings, provisional) above €59,357 per person; corporate tax 19% and 25.8%; box 2 24.5% and 31%; BV costs estimated at €1,500 per year when the BV is new. Costs of moving money, dividend tax timing and your own country's rules change the outcome; that is what the written advice is for.

How the two routes work

Box 3 is the private route. Every year the tax office assumes a return on your assets above the tax-free amount, about 6% for investments and about 1.28% for savings, and taxes 36% of that. Since 2025 you may prove a lower real return and pay on that instead. From 2028 the plan is to tax the real return directly: interest, dividend and gains, at 36%.

The BV is the company route. You put the money in your holding, or in a BV set up for it, and the BV invests. It pays 19% corporate tax on the real profit each year (25.8% above €200,000) and nothing on paper gains until they are realised. Box 2 only comes when you pay the money out to yourself: 24.5% up to €68,843 per person per year, 31% above. The costs: bookkeeping and annual accounts, unless you already have a holding.

Box 3 or BV: where should your money grow?

Box 3 or BV

How the two routes work

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