Tax plan may reach parliament without a majority
PRO leader Jesse Klaver says the cabinet is moving away from his party and Volt, as the Tweede Kamer prepares to debate the tax plan on Wednesday.
"There's no political will to work with us," PRO leader Jesse Klaver said on Saturday after he and Volt leader Laurens Dassen met the cabinet leadership at the Catshuis in The Hague. He fears the tax plan (belastingplan) will go to the Tweede Kamer on Wednesday without a majority. Prime Minister Rob Jetten has said the cabinet will present a detailed plan on Tuesday.
Both chambers must approve the plan by the end of November so the Belastingdienst, the tax administration, does not run into trouble. The minority cabinet has been looking for a majority since August. It also needs one in the Eerste Kamer, the Senate, where PRO and Volt could provide it, as could JA21, SGP and BBB together with former BBB senators.
JA21, BBB and SGP met the cabinet online on Saturday. They have tied their support to a package of demands: stricter asylum measures, different nitrogen plans, and changes to abortion rights and surrogacy. Jetten said on Friday the cabinet would not meet the non-financial demands. After Saturday's talks the three parties said: "We haven't got there yet, but we do see some common ground to keep talking."
A Tweede Kamer majority appears in sight because ChristenUnie and 50PLUS are willing to support the proposals. Their leaders, Mirjam Bikker and Jan Struijs, want to see first what the changes do to the purchasing power of lower and middle incomes. Bikker said she had hoped for more progress.
The left-wing parties want higher taxes on wealth and lower taxes on income from work. The cabinet agrees with the second, not the first. It wants to pay for a new approach to box 3 by lowering box 2 rates for entrepreneurs, which brings in money in the short term but probably costs billions in the long term. Klaver wants change, "but not more money going to the wealthy", and will seek amendments in the Tweede Kamer. Dassen said the cabinet does not want to strike deals with Volt.
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Guide: Dutch income tax brackets and rates 2026
Guide: Box 3: Dutch tax on savings and investments in 2026
Follow the story: Box 3
Tweede Kamer
The House of Representatives, the lower and more powerful house of the Dutch parliament. Its 150 members are elected directly; it can amend bills and holds the cabinet to account.
Eerste Kamer
The Senate, the upper house of the Dutch parliament. It cannot amend bills but can approve or reject them after the Tweede Kamer has passed them. Its 75 members are elected by the members of the provincial councils.
ChristenUnie
The ChristenUnie is a Dutch political party with a Christian basis, represented in the Tweede Kamer, the lower house of the States General. It takes part in parliamentary debates and votes on government bills, including the tax plans that the cabinet presents, so its position can affect whether a plan gets a majority. Its members in the Tweede Kamer are called MPs, and it is one of the smaller parties in the Dutch parliament.
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.