Step 2: Filing your 2024 tax return

You may be able to use deductions when completing your 2024 tax return to lower the amount of income tax you will have to pay. Examples are deducting mortgage interest or the notary and mortgage advice fees for taking out the mortgage from your income. You may also deduct personal deductions, such as spousal and/or child maintenance, medical expenses and gifts and donations from your income, subject to certain conditions.

You may also be entitled to one or more tax credits, which will give you a discount on the calculated tax. Examples of tax credits are income-related combination tax credit (for parents with young children), (single) elderly person’s tax credit (for people who have reached the state pension age), and discounts on green investments.

If you made any donations (for which you have proof) to one or more public benefit organisations (known as ‘ANBIs’ in Dutch) in 2024, we advise you to make a list of these donations. If they meet certain conditions, donations are tax deductible. A distinction is made here between ‘one-off’ gifts and ‘recurring’ donations (a regular, ongoing donation).

A threshold and a maximum apply when deducting one-off gifts. No threshold applies to recurring donations, but you do need to meet a number of conditions, including that the donation is laid down in an agreement.

If you make a donation to a cultural public benefit organisation, you may deduct 1.25 times the donation amount from your income, up to a maximum of €1,250. You will reach this maximum if you give at least €5,000 to cultural public benefit organisations in a calendar year.

Expenses incurred due to sickness or disability are deductible under certain conditions. You may only deduct the medical expenses in the tax return for the year in which you paid these expenses if they were not reimbursed. Expenses that fall under the voluntary or compulsory excess are non-deductible.

You can set off the personal deductions (such as donations, medical expenses and spousal maintenance) against your income in Box 1, Box 3 and Box 2 (in that order). If you cannot fully set off your personal deductions against this income, you may set off the remainder against your income in a future year.

Regardless of your income, your medical expenses are deductible at a maximum rate of 36.93%, but the deduction of medical expenses is subject to a threshold amount that depends on your income and deductions.

• Any costs that relate directly to taking out, extending or repaying a loan for your home in Box 1 are deductible as a lump sum from your taxable income in Box 1 for the year in which these costs were incurred. These costs include advice and brokerage fees for your mortgage adviser, notary fees and land registry fees in relation to the mortgage deed, valuation costs to get the mortgage, and the costs involved in applying for the National Mortgage Guarantee.
• If you incurred charges because you remortgaged or repaid the mortgage for your home early in 2024, you can deduct these charges as a lump sum from your taxable income in Box 1.
• The maximum rate for the deduction of costs relating to your own home is 36.93%, regardless of your income. The deduction is calculated automatically when completing the tax return. 

Mortgage deductions and a bigger tax break

If you borrowed money in 2024 from your company, a family member or another person to be able to buy your home, you must state this loan separately on your tax return.

If you took out a loan from your own company in 2024 for your home, the condition is that a right of mortgage must be established in favour of the company.

Permanently or temporarily letting all or part of your home will affect your taxes. This is explained in more detail in the article (in Dutch) ‘Je woning verhuren: hoe zit het juridisch en fiscaal?’ (Letting your home: what are the legal and tax implications?).

In Box 3 (taxable income from savings and investments), you pay no tax on assets below your tax-free allowance of €57,000 (or €114,000 for tax partners). Any assets above that threshold are taxed at a flat rate – that means it’s the same for everyone. This tax rate is based on the assumed return on your savings and investments. 

If you would pay less tax based on the actual return rather than the assumed return, you are entitled to a refund of the excess tax paid. 

To qualify for the refund, you must be able to provide evidence of the actual return. The Dutch Tax and Customs Administration (Belastingdienst) is currently designing a form specifically for this purpose. As the form is expected to be available only from mid-2025, you’ll need to apply the assumed rate in your next tax return. The Belastingdienst will also release a form for pre-2024 tax years.

Remember that no tax debts can be deducted in Box 3. An exception is inheritance tax debt and, under certain conditions, tax debts from a provisional income tax assessment. This is explained in more detail (in Dutch) on the ‘Belastingschulden’ (Tax debts) page on the Dutch Tax and Customs Administration’s website.

If you pay spousal maintenance to your ex-partner, the amount you pay is tax-deductible. Your ex-partner must declare the same amount as income on their income tax return. Child maintenance is not tax deductible, nor is it considered a form of deductible debt for the purpose of Box 3 either.

If you have moved out of your home on account of a divorce or separation in advance of a divorce, while your ex-partner continues to live there, you will be able to continue to use the mortgage interest deduction for your share of the ownership of the home for a maximum of 24 months after you move out.

You must then also declare the imputed rental value for your share of the ownership over that same period. This is balanced out by a spousal maintenance deduction of the same amount. After all, you have granted your ex-partner the benefit of occupying the property.

Given that the death occurred in 2024, this means that at 00:00 on 1 January 2024 you did not have any inheritance tax debt relating to this death yet. You can include this debt in your 2025 income tax return, which you can file with the Dutch Tax and Customs Administration from March 2026 onwards.

If so, you can generally include the amount of this debt in Box 3 of the tax return, regardless of whether you have already received an inheritance tax assessment from the Tax and Customs Administration for this.