PRO plan would tax large asset returns at 45%

Under the plan of the party PRO, which it is tabling with Volt, anyone who earns more than €80,000 in returns on their assets would pay 45% tax on that income. The rate in box 3, the tax on savings and investments, is now 36%. PRO calculates the higher rate would hit people with assets of €1.3m or more, and expects it to raise €600m extra in a year.

In return, working people would pay €1.5bn less in total to the Tax Administration (Belastingdienst).

The parties also want to raise half a billion euros by abolishing tax constructions in inheritance and gift tax and by ending the option for director-major shareholders to borrow money tax-free from their own BV (private limited company). A higher rate for those same entrepreneurs is meant to bring in a further €400m.

PRO has long argued for shifting the tax burden from labour to wealth. Talks with the cabinet did not produce the result it wanted, so the parties are now tabling their own plan.

In the debate, Klaver, who presented the proposal, said people who earn money from their assets should pay as much tax as people who earn the same amount from work. He said the proposal goes further than he would like, but is a last attempt to prevent a cabinet crisis.

VVD MP Wendy van Eijk said the amendment conflicts with the coalition agreement and is bad for the Netherlands because it taxes entrepreneurs more heavily. She called it "unthinkable" that the rest of the coalition would vote for it. D66 MP Henk-Jan Oosterhuis called the proposal "sympathetic" and said his party understands the rise in wealth tax. He said the amendment is "a bit rough" and its scale somewhat too wide, but that D66 can "absolutely" hold talks about it.

If this gets stuck, we will have no tax plan and no cabinet. And then there will be new elections. I want to do everything to prevent that.Klaver