Other tax tips & changes

Here are some other tax tips and changes for you this year.

General

Do you expect to pay tax for the 2024 or 2025 tax year? Requesting a provisional assessment in good time, will save you legal interest. Interest is calculated if the assessment is imposed later than 6 months after the end of the calendar year (1 July 2025). The interest is 7.5% currently. To ensure that the assessment is imposed in time, we recommend that you apply for it before 1 April 2025. The assessment for the 2024 tax year must be paid at once. There is the possibility of paying the assessment for the tax year 2025 in instalments during the year. Do you have questions about this? We are happy to assist you in applying for a provisional assessment.
If you expect to receive a refund for 2019, an Income Tax return for this year must be submitted before December 31, 2024. In 2024, the 5-year term for submitting this declaration will expire.

If possible, bundle deductible expenses such as medical expenses and donations in one specific year. For example, a deduction is achieved earlier and the threshold is only deducted once from the expenses. For donations, the threshold disappears completely if you commit to donating to a charitable institution for 5 years, which has to be agreed on in writing.
In 2024, deductible items may be taken at a maximum of the low rate of 36,97% even if your income falls in the highest bracket.

As mentioned in the introduction, if you were planning on converting (low-yielding) assets (e.g. shares, crypto, real estate) to bank accounts, this could save a substantial amount of box 3 tax for 2025 if this is done before the end of the year. All other assets apart from bank accounts are taxed at the highest rate, while bank accounts are taxed at a lower rate.
Receivables and loaned amounts are also taxed at the highest rate, therefore it would save box 3 tax for 2025 if the amounts are received or paid back into your bank account before the end of the year. This is only applicable if, in due course, you choose for taxation on fictitious box 3 income.The green investment exemption in box 3 will be scaled back from 1 January 2025. From 1 January 2025, the green investments exemption will be reduced to € 30.000, for 2024 the exemption was € 71.251.

If you received a one-off gift under the exemption of up to € 100.000 for a house in 2022 and you have not yet fully used this amount, you should spend it on your house in 2024; if not, gift tax will be due on the unused portion.
House buyers between the age of 18 and 35 can benefit from a one-off transfer tax/stamp duty exemption if they meet certain requirements. The limit of this starter exemption (house value limit) will be raised from € 510.000 to € 525.000 in 2025, meaning that by waiting with the house purchase until 2025, you could potentially save thousands of euros in transfer tax.
The general transfer tax/stamp duty rate will remain at 10.4% in 2025 as in 2024. However, with effect from 1 January 2026, this rate will be reduced to 8%. This rate is valid for all properties except those to which the reduced rate of 2% or the starter exemption applies.