The “2021 Tax Plan” package comprises a total of eight Bills, and has been confined where possible to measures whose effective date has been fixed at the first of January 2021 or which are required by this date to have been publicised in the Netherlands Bulletin of Acts, Orders and Decrees. Other measures of a tax-specific nature the effective date(s) of which could be delayed until the first of January 2022 or beyond are where possible to be gathered together in the Collective Tax Bill 2022, which is to be submitted to the Lower and Upper Houses sometime next year.
The 2021 Tax Plan Bill itself contains measures the budgetary effect of which is scheduled to commence on the first of January 2021. The seven remaining Bills as per the 2021 Tax Plan package are as follows:
- the 2021 Miscellaneous Tax Measures Bill,
- the Box 3 (Amendment) Bill,
- the Stamp Duty Land Tax (Differentiation) Bill,
- the Allowances (Feasibility Enhancement) Bill,
- the Carbon Tax (Industrial Taxpayers) Bill,
- the Sustainable Energy and Climatic Transition Markup (Amendment) Bill,
- the One Off Rent Reduction (Lower Income Tenants) Bill.
(1) The 2021 Miscellaneous Tax Measures Bill deals with measures of a technical nature as well as containing budgetarily inconsequential measures. It provides for clarifications of the KIA (Small Scale Investment Allowance) and WBSO (Research and Development Promotion) schemes and of the concurrence between ATAD2 (the revised Anti Tax Avoidance Directive) and the earnings stripping regime. Technical adjustments to the Life Course Savings scheme and the Netherlands Estates Act are also catered for, in addition to which the Bill contains a proposal for allowing the Tax and Customs Administration to issue electronic garnishment orders.
(2) The Box 3 (Amendment) Bill accommodates modest savers and investors by increasing their tax-free capital threshold from 30,846 to 50,000 euros each (or 100,000 euros for couples). Then again it also provides for a one percent increase, from 30 to 31 percent, of the tax rate for Box 3 items.
(3) The Stamp Duty Land Tax (Differentiation) Bill introduces a one-off stamp duty land tax (or property transfer tax) exemption for first-time home owners in the 18 to 35 age bracket. Both the first-time home owner exemption and the reduced 2 percent stamp duty charge levied in connection with transactions involving residential properties are to be strictly confined to natural persons who meet the owner-occupancy criterion. All other transactions involving residential or non-residential properties are to be liable for an 8 percent stamp duty charge from the first of January 2021 onwards (up from its current rate of 6 percent for non-residential properties).
(4) The Allowances (Feasibility Enhancement) Bill contains a number of allowance-specific measures.
(5) The Carbon Tax (Industrial Taxpayers) Bill chiefly deals with the industrial manufacturing and waste incineration related emission of greenhouse gases.
(6) The Sustainable Energy and Climatic Transition Surcharge (Amendment) Bill revises the so-called ODE (sustainable energy surcharge) rates as per the Coalition Agreement and the National Climate Agreement, ODE being a (sur) charge on the use of electricity and natural gas enabling the funding of cash expenditure associated with the SDE++ (Sustainable Energy Production Incentivisation) scheme. The SDE++ scheme in addition to incentivising sustainable energy production also fosters carbon dioxide reduction.
(7) The One Off Rent Reduction (Lower Income Tenants) Bill contains a proposal to the effect that incumbent tenants with a so-called regulated lease whose income does not exceed the former (now-obsolete) income limit should be rendered eligible for a one-off rent reduction down to rental cap level. Housing corporations are to be accommodated by having the landlord levy for which they are liable lowered by 0.036 of a percentage point.
Dutch version: Belastingplan 2021: een overzicht