Key takeaways
- The Dutch cabinet abandons its prior plan to tax unrealized investment gains annually and turns to realized profits.
- The Dutch capital gains tax covers most financial instruments from 2028 and the remaining instruments from 2030.
- The cabinet's letter to the House of Representatives does not state whether bitcoin falls under the 2028 or 2030 phase.
The Dutch cabinet told the House of Representatives on Tuesday that it is abandoning its prior plan to tax unrealized investment gains annually. The cabinet will instead introduce a capital gains tax that applies only on realized profits, covering most financial instruments from 2028 and the rest from 2030.
The Dutch cabinet of Prime Minister Rob Jetten and Finance Minister Eelco Heinen set out the change in a letter to the House of Representatives. The cabinet's letter does not state whether bitcoin falls under the 2028 or 2030 phase of the capital gains tax, and the measure still needs parliamentary approval.
Jetten's cabinet drops the paper-gains plan
The letter from Jetten's cabinet abandons the prior plan to tax unrealized investment gains annually.
Under the prior plan, Dutch holders would have been taxed annually on unrealized investment gains, including gains on bitcoin they had never sold. Under the capital gains tax, the bill applies only on realized profits when holders sell.
The switch replaces an annual tax on unrealized investment gains with a capital gains tax on realized profits, so the Dutch tax on bitcoin gains would follow a sale rather than the calendar.
The earlier plan had its own 2028 start. A January 22, 2026 report from Coinpedia described the earlier Dutch plan to tax unrealized bitcoin gains starting in 2028.
2028 for most instruments, bitcoin's phase unclear
The new capital gains tax covers most financial instruments from 2028 and the rest from 2030. The cabinet's letter does not state whether bitcoin falls under the 2028 or 2030 phase of the capital gains tax.
Dutch bitcoin holders therefore cannot yet tell whether the capital gains tax on their realized profits starts in 2028 or in 2030.
The capital gains tax measure still needs parliamentary approval. Until the House of Representatives approves the measure, the cabinet's letter sets out a plan for a capital gains tax rather than a law.
Why It Matters
Any tax on bitcoin gains, realized or unrealized, is a coercive measure no different from theft, so scrapping the worse annual tax on unrealized investment gains is no reason to welcome a capital gains tax on realized profits. A capital gains tax that applies only on realized profits still hinders bitcoin's adoption as money and settlement, because every sale or payment of bitcoin at a profit becomes taxable, and that keeps people trapped in the fiat system instead of in sovereign self-custody. Privacy advocates should also oppose this measure, because enforcing a tax on bitcoin requires mass surveillance and data collection on holders' realized profits, eroding financial privacy and sovereignty.
