Nowadays, more and more banks have a negative savings interest rate, already from € 100,000 on the savings account. So you no longer receive interest on your money in the savings account, but you have to pay a certain percentage on your savings for storing your money at the bank. There are several ways to avoid negative interest in savings:

1.  Opening additional accounts

With some banks you can have multiple accounts at 1 bank and the accounts are not added together. At other banks, the amounts on different accounts at 1 bank are added together. Spreading your savings over several accounts can be difficult because the banks no longer open a new account for you so easily;

2.  Investing

You can also invest your money; spreading it over many different investments is then advisable, as is engaging a good financial advisor. Depending on your desired risk level, your advisor can select and arrange the right investments for you;

3.  Provide an interest-free loan to your child

You deposit your money up to a maximum of € 100,000 in your child’s savings account. To conclude a written loan agreement in which you indicate that the loan is intended to prevent negative interest at the bank and that you can always reclaim the money now. Extra option: If you pay your child the amount of negative interest saved as a contribution, this is tax-free for your child. Record this ‘interest amount’ in the loan agreement;

4.  Loan to your own BV

Do you still have room in the bank account(s) of your BV? Then lend your private assets to your BV. The condition is that you pay the BV more interest than the bank charges the BV. Your BV then makes a ‘profit’ and it is a matter of business conduct. You can deduct the interest paid by you to the BV in box 1 on the basis of the posting arrangement. In this case, too, you must record this in a loan agreement;

5.  Loan from your BV to you

Do you still have room in your private account, while your BV has to pay interest to the bank? Then borrow money from your BV. The BV must then pay interest to you instead of to the bank. This interest is deductible for your BV. You will then have a ‘debt’ with your BV, but you will receive tax-free interest, which is also deductible for your BV. Your bank balance in box 3 will increase, but so will your debt, so on balance (almost), nothing will be taxed;

6.  Establishing an OFGR or BV

If it concerns a significant amount of capital, setting up an OFGR or BV is also an option to avoid negative interest on savings and high box-3 levies. This is because this is based on the actual return instead of the box-3 tax, whereby an often unfavorable fictitious return is calculated. It might be though that there will be some changes, making an OFGR less favorable;

7. Tax-free gift

If you already intend to make a gift to your child(ren), the negative savings interest may be a boost. You could then possibly make use of the tax-free gift up to 100.000 euros for parents to their children to assist them in buying their first home.

8. Storing your money in a foreign bank account

Storing your money in a foreign account with better interest conditions can also be beneficial. Provided that you do report this money to the tax authorities. Otherwise, there is tax evasion. What you should definitely not do is a so-called ‘Inventive Construction’ abroad to disguise your wealth; this is outright tax evasion and may be punishable by law. The tax authorities are very alert to this and have a special program ‘Hidden assets’. So do not be tempted by malicious advisers who want to persuade you to such illegal construction.

9. Box 3 assets

Do you own box 3 assets above € 100,000? We are happy to look at tax options with you to prevent you from paying negative interest on a savings account.

Have you not declared assets to the tax authorities recently or in the past? Have you teamed up with an advisor who has set up an inventive construction for you (as described above)? Do you want to make a clean sweep? We are happy to guide you based on our many years of experience.