BDO Corporate Tax News

The Netherlands Tax Plan 2026—the country’s annual plan for tax measures—presented on 16 September 2025 by the State Secretary of Finance, does not make any broad changes to the rules affecting cross-border business, but provisions are proposed that would affect companies doing business within and outside the Netherlands.

The key provisions affecting companies are as follows:

• Global minimum tax (Pillar Two): Changes would be made to the Dutch Minimum Taxation Act 2024 to align it with OECD guidance that has not yet been incorporated into Dutch tax law, specifically the guidelines published in December 2023, June 2024 and January 2025. Additionally, technical amendments would be made to the rules, some of which would apply retroactively.
• DAC9: A separate bill would transpose the amended EU Directive on Administrative Cooperation (DAC9) into Dutch law. DAC9 allows multinational enterprises to submit a single top-up tax information return for all EU jurisdictions in a single EU member state. This return would then be included in the automatic exchange of information framework among the member states. Member states are required to implement DAC9 by 31 December 2025. Affected multinationals will need to file their first top-up tax information return by 30 June 2026, with the information exchanged by 31 December 2026. 
• Transitional regime for mutual funds: The definition of a mutual fund was amended with effect from 1 January 2025, which has resulted in certain investment funds, particularly partnerships, which were previously tax transparent, becoming tax non-transparent if they fulfilled the (new) mutual fund conditions. Non-transparency status for tax purposes does not apply to funds whose participations, in principle, can only be sold to the fund itself (i.e., a repurchase fund). A transitional measure is already in place, under which funds have until 1 January 2026 to transition to a repurchase fund, subject to certain conditions. However, due to other identified issues, a temporary measure is being proposed, pending a possible new mutual fund definition. Under the proposed transitional measure, entities that become taxable in the Netherlands as from 1 January 2025 and that qualified as tax transparent on 31 December 2024 may, under certain conditions, choose to remain tax transparent and thus temporarily not be classified as a mutual fund, which would prevent short-term independent tax liability for this specific situation. Any change to the mutual fund definition would take effect on 1 January 2027 at the earliest. The transitional law will apply until the new definition takes effect, but no later than 1 January 2028.
• Minimum capital rules for banks and insurance companies: Technical amendments would be made to the minimum capital rules for banks and insurance companies to remove an unintended consequence of 2024 amendments that introduced an exception to the rules. As from 1 January 2024, interest expense on debts to group entities are generally exempt from the minimum capital rule, but this internal liquidity management exception unintentionally covers loans obtained from individuals. The Tax Plan 2026 proposes that these situations no longer qualify for the exception.
• Lucrative interest regime: Gains from an indirectly held lucrative interest may, at the taxpayer’s request, be taxed in Box 2 instead of being treated as income from other activities in Box 1 provided at least 95% of the lucrative interest gains realised in a calendar year are distributed as income from a substantial interest. The government proposes to broaden the tax base for income from an indirectly held lucrative interest by applying a multiplier so that the effective tax burden on such gains would increase from 24.5% to 28.45% for gains taxed at the first rate bracket of Box 2, and from 31% to 36% for gains taxed at the second rate bracket of Box 2. This measure is not limited to lucrative interests held by private equity managers but extends to all qualifying interests.

Parliament will begin debating the proposed tax changes in October and it is expected that the measures will be approved by December.

For a full analysis of the Tax Day 2026 proposals, see the materials posted by BDO in the Netherlands.

Lisanne Rijff
BDO in Netherlands