Cabinet still has no tax plan deal with opposition parties
Talks with five opposition parties have not settled the tax plans, including the box 3 overhaul, and the deadline is a little over two weeks away.
A new round of talks between the cabinet and PRO, Volt, JA21, 50Plus and the ChristenUnie has produced no deal on the tax plans, which include an overhaul of box 3. The cabinet needs opposition support to get the plans through the Tweede Kamer.
On Monday the cabinet said a further €350m of changes to the plans is open for negotiation. Prime Minister Rob Jetten said he hoped topics other than money would be kept out of the talks as much as possible. “Our appeal is: judge the tax plan on what is in it,” he said.
JA21 leader Joost Eerdmans spoke to Jetten and CDA asylum minister Bart van den Brink. Afterwards he said they had reached no agreement on JA21’s demand that municipalities should not be obliged to take in asylum seekers under the spreidingswet, the distribution law. “We did not get there,” he said. He added that JA21 can work with the cabinet if it moves on this point. “If they don’t, it has to go via the left.”
PRO leader Jesse Klaver, who wants the rich to pay more tax, met the prime minister on Tuesday evening together with Volt’s Laurens Dassen. “I have heard no blockade on taxing the very richest,” Klaver said afterwards.
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Guide: Dutch income tax brackets and rates 2026
Guide: Box 3: Dutch tax on savings and investments in 2026
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Box 3
The part of Dutch income tax that taxes savings and investments. Tax is charged on an assumed return rather than the actual return; after the Supreme Court ruled from 2021 that this can breach property rights, the system has to be reformed.
JA21 (Juiste Antwoord 2021)
A Dutch right-wing party, founded in December 2020 after a split in Forum voor Democratie (FvD), by Joost Eerdmans and Annabel Nanninga. It is critical of the European Union and of immigration, and favours lower taxes.
Spreidingswet
The law that spreads the reception of asylum seekers across Dutch municipalities. Each province and municipality is asked to provide a share of the places; a municipality that does not can be placed under supervision and, in the end, instructed by the minister.
PRO
PRO is a Dutch political party represented in the House of Representatives (Tweede Kamer), the lower house of the States General. It takes part in parliamentary debates and in negotiations over government policy, including tax plans, and it is one of the opposition parties whose support a cabinet may need on major legislation.