Netherlands – File Your Tax Returns in 3 Steps

It’s that part of the year when reporting our taxes is due. If you’re not familiar with the Dutch tax system or feel overwhelmed researching it, you’re not alone. But you’re at the right place. The reality is that filing your tax returns in The Netherlands is not that complicated.

At the end, you need to report the following taxes:

Box 1 – Income tax

Box 2 – Tax on substantial interest / holding in a limited company

Box 3 – Wealth / savings tax

And if you’re an expat enjoying what’s left of his 30% ruling, you won’t have to pay anything in Box 2 and Box 3.

This post will teach you how to report your taxes, so you don’t have to rely on or pay for a specialist that will just proxy your information to the tax authorities’ website. You can do it yourself easily.

DIY Dutch Tax Returns

Step 1

Go to belastingdienst.nl (Belastingdienst translates to Tax Authorities), click Inloggen on the header, and click on Mijn Belastingdienst.

Once you’re in Mijn Belastingdienst, click the big blue Inloggen and login with your DigiD account. In case you don’t have a DigiD account, register for it right there. It’s a single sign-on for all the government websites and will come in handy during your stay in The Netherlands.

After you’re in in the tax authorities website, go to Inkomstenbelasting (which translates to income tax). The other options are for gift tax and inheritance tax and you don’t have to do anything if they’re not applicable to you.

Select the year you want to report taxes for. That would be the previous year, not the current one. For example, you can only file taxes for 2018 from March 2019 onward, not before.

Clicking on Aangifte inkomstenbelasting doen will take you to the tax return form.

Step 2

Pro tip: If you’re using Chrome, right click anywhere on the page and select Translate to English. That way it’ll be clearer what they are asking if you still can’t speak the language. Read the introduction, unless you prefer not to, and click Volgende (next).

What will happen in this step is you’ll be required to give information regarding various topics. I won’t list them all, as you can see them in the sidebar on the screenshots, but it shouldn’t feel too different than filling in a questionnaire.

For example, the first interactive page will ask you about persoonlijke gegevens (personal data / identification information), so fill in what’s necessary and agree by clicking Akkoord.

And you basically repeat the same process for each question. They ask, you answer.

In the next screen they’ll ask you if you’re married, if you live with someone, if you have kids, etc. Keep the page translated and answering will be easy. Screenshot is not required, as different questions will pop-up based on our answers (for example, if you live alone they won’t ask if you and your housemate are partners in a pension scheme).

Next, they will already have information about your income, so it’s up to you to provide the rest of the details and earnings. That means that the less things you have to report, the easier it will be. For example, if you’re a homeowner, investor, paying for alimony, owning a car, and receiving foreign income – it will be harder to fill everything in than someone who just earns an income in The Netherlands. But when I say harder I don’t mean hard. You’ll just need to answer a few more questions.

In any case it boils down to answering simple questions and checking checkboxes.

Here is an example for the Bankrekeningen en andere bezittingen (bank accounts and other assets) where you need to check which types of assets you own:

Each question that’s applicable to you will create a few more input boxes to fill in the details. So, as in the section for partner and kids, the experience will vary for different people. For example, in the section for Woningen en andere onroerende zaken (housing and real estate) this would be your experience if you don’t own a property:

But if you’re a homeowner, follow-up questions will appear and you just fill them in.

EZ.

And it’s the same process for each step of the way. It’s that simple.

Yes, you may need go to your broker or bank and get the reports for your investments or mortgage, but that’s the same amount of effort you’d put if you hire an accountant. He’ll just ask you to provide the same info and put it in instead of you.

Important: if you can’t provide a certain information right away, you can always save the form by clicking on the Opslaan (save) button on the lower part of the left sidebar and your progress will be saved for you when you come back in the future.

Just make sure to do it before May.

Step 3

After you filled everything in, you’ll find yourself on the Naar ondertekenen page (“to sign” – although a more precise translation would be “towards signing”). Click on the button in order to sign and submit the form.

You’ll be redirected to the review page where you’ll need to login with your DigiD account once again.

You can click on Aangifte inkomstenbelasting 2018 (or whatever year you’re submitting it for) to review your input and, once ready, sign it by clicking on Ondertekenen (sign) and send it by clicking on Verzenden (send).

And your part is done!

Enjoy the money you saved by Doing It Yourself.

Additional Info

Remember that if you’re benefiting from the 30% rule, you shouldn’t declare your Box 2 and Box 3 taxes, as you’re considered a “non resident tax prayer” and you’re exempt from them.

For example, in the section “Bank accounts and other assets” there will be a question about your savings and other assets and you can just leave it blank if still under the 30% ruling.

Just FYI, Box 3 tax is the substitute for capital gains tax in The Netherlands and it taxes an assumed growth of everything you own above a certain threshold (~€30k, but it changes every year). You’ll pay these taxes regardless of whether you made profits or just kept everything in cash. That’s why learning to invest can pay dividends, literally and figuratively.

If you don’t know what the 30% ruling is, just disregard and fill in everything. I’ll write a post about it in the future, so make sure to subscribe below and follow me on Facebook and Twitter, so you’re notified each time I publish a new post.

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And if your tax deductible expenses are high enough, you may get some money back. For example, interest paid on your mortgage, some healthcare cost, paying for your own transport to get to work, and a handful of other factors will all contribute to an amount that you can get back.

The tax refund can be especially beneficial for people who didn’t live in the country for the full fiscal year. You may be pleasantly surprised with couple thousand euros appearing in your bank account in certain scenarios (I was).

Why you shouldn’t hire a tax adviser

But why not just paying a tax consultancy and make the process easier and faster?

That’s the catch – you won’t.

Filling the tax returns yourself doesn’t take more time than you’d need to find the appropriate tax adviser, correspond, get all the documents you need, get a form to fill in (the information of which will be forwarded to Belastingdienst anyway) and, as the grand finale, pay for the service.

When to hire a tax adviser?

There are some cases when I wouldn’t be against hiring a tax adviser:

The first year of residency, when you’ll receive an “M Form” in your mailbox and you’ll need to fill it and submit it physically. If you want to optimize a complex tax situation in order to pay less taxes legally. Note: This is more of an advisory role rather than having someone filling in information you can fill in yourself.

An anecdote

I had a specific question about how dividends from abroad are taxed, so I put it in a mail and sent it to a few tax consultancies. All of them replied along the following lines: “that will take an hour, pay 400€“.

I proceeded calling the Dutch tax authorities on their free number (0800 0543) myself and getting the answer within minutes.

It comes down to how much and which type of help you need.

So there you go, you just saved an amount between 200€ and 600€ for each year you’ll stay in the Netherlands.

Disclaimer: This post is not an introduction to Dutch taxes and, as everything on this blog, can’t be held liable for anything. It’s everyone’s responsibility to educate themselves about taxes. The goal of the post is to show suckers that they don’t need to overspend in order to file their tax returns in The Netherlands.

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