P2P Lending Tax Guide for Dutch Investors 2026

TL;DR

• The Netherlands does not tax your P2P interest directly. Your P2P loans sit in Box 3 (income from savings and investments), where the tax is based on a deemed (forfaitair) return on your net assets, not on the interest you actually received. (Source: Belastingdienst, Income in Box 3)
• Your outstanding P2P loans (money you have lent out, called vorderingen) fall in the “other assets” (overige bezittingen) category, which for 2026 carries a deemed return of 6.00% (definitive). (Source: Belastingdienst, Box 3 provisional assessment 2026)
• The Box 3 tax rate for 2026 is a flat 36%, applied to your deemed return above the tax-free allowance.
• The tax-free allowance (heffingsvrij vermogen) for 2026 is 59,357 euro per person, or 118,714 euro for fiscal partners.
• The system is in transition. After the Supreme Court’s 2021 Kerstarrest, you can now use a rebuttal option (tegenbewijsregeling): if your real return across all Box 3 assets is lower than the deemed return, you can be taxed on the real figure instead. A new system taxing actual return is planned for 2028.
• The rules are the same whether the platform is Dutch or foreign. This is general information, not tax advice.

1. Box 3 basics: why the Netherlands taxes your P2P differently

Most countries tax the interest you earn on peer-to-peer loans as income. The Netherlands does something unusual: it largely ignores what you actually earned and instead taxes an assumed return on the value of your assets.

The Dutch income tax system has three “boxes”. Box 1 covers salary and business income. Box 2 covers substantial shareholdings. Box 3 covers “income from savings and investments” (inkomen uit sparen en beleggen), and this is where your P2P lending lives. (Source: Belastingdienst, Income in Box 3)

Here is how Box 3 works in 2026, step by step.

The 1 January snapshot. The tax looks at what you owned on one single day: 1 January of the tax year (the peildatum). Whatever your P2P balance and other assets are worth on that date is what counts. If you invest a large amount in February, it does not affect that year’s Box 3 at all. If you had a lot of cash sitting idle on 1 January, it counts even if you spent it the next week.

Three asset categories, three deemed returns. The Belastingdienst does not use one flat percentage. It splits your assets into three buckets and applies a different assumed (“deemed” or forfaitair) return to each (Source: Belastingdienst, Box 3 provisional assessment 2026):

For P2P investors, the middle row is the one that matters. Money you have lent out through a platform is a vordering (a claim or receivable), and receivables sit in the “other assets” category. That means the tax office assumes your P2P money earned 6.00% in 2026, whether it actually earned more, less, or nothing at all. The savings rate for 2026 is still provisional and is set definitively by the Belastingdienst in early 2027, which is why we flag it above.

The tax-free allowance. You do not pay Box 3 tax on your first slice of net wealth. For 2026 the heffingsvrij vermogen is 59,357 euro per person, and 118,714 euro for people with a fiscal partner. Only the deemed return on assets above that threshold is taxed. (Source: Belastingdienst, Box 3 provisional assessment 2026)

The rate. The deemed return that remains is then taxed at a flat 36% for 2026, the same rate as 2025.

A worked example. Suppose on 1 January 2026 you are single and you hold 40,000 euro in a P2P portfolio and 30,000 euro in savings, with no debts. Your total assets are 70,000 euro. After the 59,357 euro allowance, roughly 10,643 euro of assets is inside the taxable zone. Because your assets are split between two categories with different deemed returns, the Belastingdienst works out a blended deemed return, applies it to the taxable portion, and charges 36% on the result. The exact euro figure depends on the blend, but the important point is this: your bill is driven by how much you own on 1 January, not by the interest your loans paid during the year. (This is a simplified illustration, not a precise calculation.)

2. The transition to actual-return taxation

This part matters because the Dutch system is not settled. It is being rebuilt, and the rules that apply to your 2026 return are transitional.

The Kerstarrest (Christmas ruling). On 24 December 2021 the Dutch Supreme Court (Hoge Raad) ruled that the old Box 3 method, which assumed most people held risky investments and taxed a high fixed return, breached the right to property and the ban on discrimination in the European Convention on Human Rights. In plain terms: taxing people on a return they never earned was found to be unlawful when it clearly overshot reality. This forced the government to patch the system with repair legislation and, eventually, a rebuttal mechanism.

The rebuttal option (tegenbewijsregeling). Since the 2025 tax year, if your real return across your entire Box 3 holding is lower than the deemed return, you can ask to be taxed on the real figure instead. From tax year 2025 onward this is built into the normal income tax return, so no separate form is needed. (Source: SRA, overview of the Box 3 rebuttal scheme) By early December 2025, more than 476,000 real-return statements had already been filed, which shows how common the situation is.

For a P2P investor this is genuinely useful, because the deemed 6.00% on “other assets” can easily exceed what a diversified P2P portfolio actually nets after defaults. But there are strict rules on how “real return” is calculated:

• It covers your whole Box 3 portfolio, not just the P2P part. You cannot cherry-pick only the assets that underperformed.
• It includes interest received plus realized and unrealized changes in value, both positive and negative. (Source: TaxLive, unrealized value changes count toward real return)
• There is no deduction for costs, except the actual interest on debts that belong to your Box 3 assets.
• The tax-free allowance is not subtracted when computing the real return.
• It is a nominal figure. Inflation is ignored.
• There is no loss carry-forward. A loss in one year cannot be offset against a positive return in another year.

The mechanic is simple: the Belastingdienst compares your deemed return and your real return and applies whichever is lower for you.

The planned new system (2028). The government originally wanted to tax actual return from 2026, but that has been postponed. The transitional rules with deemed returns and the rebuttal option run through 2027, and a new Wet werkelijk rendement box 3 (actual-return law) is planned to take effect on 1 January 2028. Parts of that bill are still being revised, especially the contested treatment of unrealized gains. (Source: Belastingdienst, Box 3 provisional assessment 2026) In short: expect further change, and do not assume the 2026 rules will still apply in 2028.

3. Reporting your P2P holdings

You report Box 3 in your annual income tax return, the aangifte inkomstenbelasting, filed the year after the tax year (so the 2026 return is filed in 2027). The standard deadline is 1 May, unless you request an extension.

What to declare for P2P:

• The value of your outstanding loans on 1 January of the tax year. This is the money still lent out through the platform, your vorderingen. Cash sitting uninvested in your platform wallet is usually treated as a bank-type balance, but when in doubt, report it and check with the Belastingdienst.
• Your other assets and debts, since Box 3 taxes your net position across all three categories.

Foreign platforms count exactly the same. Whether you lend through a Dutch platform or an EU platform based in Latvia, Estonia, Switzerland, or anywhere else, the Dutch rule is the same: if you are a Dutch tax resident, your worldwide assets fall in Box 3. A foreign address for the platform does not move your P2P outside the Dutch net, and it does not make it invisible. The Netherlands exchanges financial account information with many countries, so assume the tax office can see foreign balances.

Practical tips:

• Keep the platform’s year-end and 1 January statements. If you ever invoke the rebuttal option, you will need to prove your interest received and any value changes and defaults across the year.
• Convert any non-euro balances to euro at the appropriate rate.
• The Belastingdienst pre-fills Dutch bank data, but it generally does not pre-fill foreign P2P balances. You are responsible for adding them yourself.

4. Default losses and how Box 3 handles them

This is where the deemed-return system feels harsh, so it is worth being precise.

Under the deemed-return method, defaults give you no relief. The 6.00% “other assets” return is assumed regardless of what happened. If a borrower defaults and you lose part of your principal, the standard forfaitair calculation does not reduce your Box 3 bill for that loss. You can even be taxed on an assumed 6% while your real portfolio went backwards. That is the exact unfairness the Kerstarrest was about.

The rebuttal option is your route to relief, but with limits. If you invoke the tegenbewijsregeling, your defaults and any drop in the value of your loans are counted as negative components of your real return for that year, because realized and unrealized value changes are included. If defaults drag your total real Box 3 return below the deemed return, you are taxed on the lower real figure. If your total real return is negative, your Box 3 income is effectively set to zero for that year. You do not get a refund below zero, and you cannot carry a loss forward to offset a good year later. (Source: SRA, overview of the Box 3 rebuttal scheme)

Two things follow from this for P2P investors:

1. Diversification protects your tax position too, not only your capital. Because the rebuttal looks at your whole Box 3 portfolio, a single default is diluted by everything else you hold. A concentrated bet that defaults can still leave your overall real return above the deemed return, meaning no relief.
2. Documentation is everything. To claim a lower real return you must be able to show the interest you received and the losses you took. Platforms that give clean annual tax and default statements make this far easier.

5. Resources: where to verify

Rules and percentages change, and the Box 3 figures for 2026 include at least one provisional number. Always confirm against the official source before filing:

• Belastingdienst, Income in Box 3 (English)
• Belastingdienst, How is my Box 3 income calculated on my provisional assessment 2026? (English)
• Belastingdienst, What is my actual return? (Dutch)
• Belastingdienst, Box 3 (vermogensrendementsheffing) main page (Dutch)

For anything genuinely at stake, speak to a Dutch tax adviser (belastingadviseur). This guide is general information and not tax advice.

6. Frequently Asked Questions

Do I pay tax on the interest my P2P loans actually earned? Not directly in 2026. Box 3 taxes a deemed return on the value of your assets on 1 January, not the interest you received. Your P2P loans are assumed to earn 6.00% for 2026. If your real return was lower, you can use the rebuttal option (tegenbewijsregeling) to be taxed on the actual figure instead.

How much can I hold before I pay any Box 3 tax? For 2026 the tax-free allowance is 59,357 euro per person, or 118,714 euro for fiscal partners. Only the deemed return on net assets above that threshold is taxed, at 36%.

Does it matter that my platform is based abroad? No. As a Dutch tax resident you report your worldwide assets in Box 3. A Latvian, Estonian, Swiss, or other foreign platform is taxed the same as a Dutch one, and you must add those balances yourself because they are usually not pre-filled.

A borrower defaulted and I lost money. Can I deduct it? Not under the standard deemed-return method, which ignores actual losses. But if you invoke the rebuttal option, defaults count as a negative part of your real return across your whole Box 3 portfolio, and can reduce or zero out your Box 3 income for that year. You cannot carry the loss into other years.

When does the actual-return system arrive? A new law taxing actual return (Wet werkelijk rendement box 3) is planned for 1 January 2028, postponed from an earlier 2026 target. Transitional rules with deemed returns and the rebuttal option apply through 2027. Parts of the 2028 bill are still being revised, so treat the timing as provisional.

Which value do I report, and on which date? Report the value of your outstanding loans on 1 January of the tax year. Money invested later in the year does not affect that year’s Box 3.

7. Bottom Line

For a Dutch P2P investor in 2026, three ideas do most of the work. First, Box 3 taxes an assumed return on your 1 January wealth, not your real interest, and your loans sit in the 6.00% “other assets” category taxed at 36% above a 59,357 euro allowance. Second, because that assumption can overshoot reality, the rebuttal option lets you be taxed on your genuinely lower real return, which is often the better outcome for P2P and also the only route to any relief for defaults. Third, the whole system is moving, with an actual-return law planned for 2028, so keep clean platform statements and verify the current figures each year. None of this is tax advice, and for real money at stake a Dutch tax adviser is worth the fee.

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If you are choosing where to lend, our current number-one ranked platform is Maclear. It is a Swiss operator supervised under a Swiss self-regulatory organization (SRO) framework, advertises target returns of roughly 14.5% to 14.9%, and offers a 30 euro welcome bonus on a first qualifying deposit. Clean, well-organized statements also make the Dutch Box 3 rebuttal option easier to support if you ever need to prove your real return. See our full review at /platforms/maclear/.

A reminder that Maclear is regulated under a Swiss SRO framework for anti-money-laundering purposes, which is not the same as a banking licence or an investor compensation scheme. P2P lending puts your capital at risk, and returns are not guaranteed.