Classify a Netherlands main home, temporary exceptions, qualifying debt, home-equity reserve, rental income, Hillen relief and legacy KEW/SEW/BEW products using 2026 rules and separate 2025 return sources.
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| Situation | Decision and evidence |
|---|---|
| Former main home vacant and genuinely for sale | Departure calendar year plus the next three calendar years; retain sale instructions and vacancy evidence. Letting interrupts ordinary Box 1 treatment; qualifying return to vacancy within the remaining sale period can restore it only if the home remained offered for sale throughout the letting period. |
| Empty or under-construction future home | Demonstrate exclusive intended main-home use in the current calendar year or one of the next three; construction status needs concrete evidence. |
| Departure after separation | Up to two years from departure while the former fiscal partner remains there as main resident, for the departing taxpayer's qualifying share. Check ownership, actual interest payments and separate maintenance obligations. |
| Admission to nursing/residential care | Up to two years under the care exception; if a continuing fiscal partner remains, the ordinary main-home rule may continue beyond that period. |
| Temporary assignment or other temporary absence | Request treatment in the return; the home must previously have been a qualifying main home for at least one year, be intended for return, and the taxpayer and partner must not have taxable income from another home under the own-home scheme. No third-party availability, subject to the statutory free-occupancy exceptions below. |
Use this method for Dutch income-tax classification of a private main home, qualifying home debt and legacy home-saving products in 2026. Establish the applicable year before calculating: a return filed during 2026 may concern 2025. Use the separate 2025 home instructions for that return; the figures below are 2026 figures. This is a calculation and evidence workflow, not authority to file or change a mortgage contract.
Classify the property and each relevant period. A qualifying home is normally the taxpayer's or household's main residence, held through legal/economic ownership or a qualifying cooperative right, with benefits, burdens and predominantly the value-change risk borne by the taxpayer or partner. An inherited usufruct, use or residence right can also qualify subject to its conditions. A qualifying fixed houseboat/caravan and appurtenances can fall within the definition. Registration or a mortgage alone does not establish main-residence status. Business premises, investment homes and independent rented portions need separate classification. Fiscal partners generally choose one main home; statutory temporary exceptions can allow additional qualifying properties. Record the facts and legal basis, not just the address. Wet IB, article 3.111; annual instructions, 10.2.
Apply temporary-home exceptions before moving the property to Box 3. Keep a dated property schedule and stop each exception when its conditions cease. Wet IB, article 3.111; annual instructions, 10.2.2–10.2.6.
| Situation | Decision and evidence |
|---|---|
| Former main home vacant and genuinely for sale | Departure calendar year plus the next three calendar years; retain sale instructions and vacancy evidence. Letting interrupts ordinary Box 1 treatment; qualifying return to vacancy within the remaining sale period can restore it only if the home remained offered for sale throughout the letting period. |
| Empty or under-construction future home | Demonstrate exclusive intended main-home use in the current calendar year or one of the next three; construction status needs concrete evidence. |
| Departure after separation | Up to two years from departure while the former fiscal partner remains there as main resident, for the departing taxpayer's qualifying share. Check ownership, actual interest payments and separate maintenance obligations. |
| Admission to nursing/residential care | Up to two years under the care exception; if a continuing fiscal partner remains, the ordinary main-home rule may continue beyond that period. |
| Temporary assignment or other temporary absence | Request treatment in the return; the home must previously have been a qualifying main home for at least one year, be intended for return, and the taxpayer and partner must not have taxable income from another home under the own-home scheme. No third-party availability, subject to the statutory free-occupancy exceptions below. |
For temporary absence, current article 3.111(7) excludes from “third parties,” when occupation is free: descendants by blood or affinity of the taxpayer, partner or immediately preceding partner; the partner or immediately preceding partner; and someone who belonged to the household for at least twelve consecutive months immediately before the absence. Check the exact relationship and timing. The annual information page still describes a narrower child-age condition; apply the current operative statute to this 2026 decision, and refer disputed or cross-border circumstances. Do not confuse this assignment exception with ordinary short holiday letting. Current statute; start-of-2026 statute.
| 2026 WOZ value | Annual ordinary benefit |
|---|---|
| Up to €12,500 | Nil |
| Above €12,500 through €25,000 | 0.10% of value |
| Above €25,000 through €50,000 | 0.20% of value |
| Above €50,000 through €75,000 | 0.25% of value |
| Above €75,000 through €1,350,000 | 0.35% of value |
| Above €1,350,000 | €4,725 plus 2.35% of the excess |
| Source | 2026 annual table and article 3.112 |
The vacant sale/future-home exceptions have no deemed benefit. The temporary-assignment exception uses 0.55% through €1,350,000 and, above that, €7,425 plus 2.35% of the excess. Do not apply that higher schedule to every absence. Article 3.112(4)–(5).
For ordinary room letting in 2026, the exemption requires total annual receipts, including furniture/energy charges, no more than €6,633; a non-independent part of the home; landlord and tenant registered there throughout the letting; and letting other than short stays. If eligible, the room remains within the own home and its rental benefit is disregarded. If the ordinary room exemption fails, apportion the rented part and corresponding debt to Box 3; short holiday letting needs its own analysis rather than automatically following this room route. Annual instructions, 10.2.1; articles 3.113–3.114.
For new post-2012 debt, verify a contractual obligation and actual repayment at least on an annuity basis within no more than 360 months; linear repayment can qualify. Carry forward the applicable remaining period rather than restarting it on refinancing. Obtain mandatory return information for loans not reported by an obliged institution, including private, own-company and relevant foreign lenders. A temporary arrears event needs the statutory cure rules: year-end arrears may be caught up in the following year; continued payment difficulty requires timely qualifying revised arrangements; an unintended calculation/payment error has its own correction deadline. Other test moments include disposal, interest changes and refinancing. Record the exact trigger and applicable article 3.119e condition; do not grant an automatic grace period to every default. Annual instructions, 10.5; articles 3.119a–3.119e.
For debt qualifying under the pre-2013 transition, preserve the historical eligible balance, repayments, refinancing/replacement dates and remaining interest-relief period. A move or refinance does not automatically restart or preserve unlimited relief. Reborrowing generally must occur by the end of the following calendar year for the relevant transition, within the eligible amount; new extra borrowing needs its own analysis. The narrow bridging exemption covers prefinancing expected home-sale equity while the specified two-home rules apply, not any loan called a bridge. Article 10bis.1 and article 3.119f; 10.5.2.
Interest on qualifying residual debt arising from a home sale between 29 October 2012 and 31 December 2017 can be deductible for at most fifteen years without the ordinary annuity obligation. A later loss-making sale does not create this relief. Confirm the original transaction, remaining period and repayments before deducting; other residual debts generally belong in Box 3, subject to its debt rules. Annual instructions, 10.6.
Complete the home balance and rate adjustment. Combine deemed benefit, relevant rental income and taxable legacy-product interest, then deduct eligible costs. Hillen relief in 2026 is 71.867% of the positive difference between the deemed home benefit and costs attributable to it. Allocate prepaid/late-paid interest to the period to which it relates for this test; zero cash interest this year does not by itself create full Hillen relief. Partner allocation follows the home-balance allocation. The highest-bracket rate is 49.50%, but qualifying home-cost relief is limited to 37.56% through the statutory rate adjustment; calculate the actual adjustment using taxable income and deducted costs, including Hillen interactions, not by multiplying the whole home balance by a single percentage. Send the reconciled result to the income-tax method. Hillen and rate-adjustment guidance; annual instructions, 10.4.
Review KEW, SEW and BEW before any payout or contract change. These are legacy home endowment, blocked savings and investment products. New arrangements have generally been closed since 2013, except qualifying continuation/conversion. Verify provider, contractual destination, continuing own-home connection, annual contributions and the maximum ten-to-one ratio between highest and lowest annual contributions. For that ratio, use insurance/contract years rather than casually using calendar years. Conversion, partial surrender, death, emigration, sale or loss of own-home status can trigger special or deemed-payout rules and require specialist review before changing the product. 2026 product instructions, 11.1–11.5; product guidance.
The ordinary 2026 lifetime exemption is €207,500 per person across these products, reduced by previous use; it is capped by qualifying debt at payout and debt actually repaid from the payout. The corresponding 2025 amount is €204,000. Check the actual payout year, any legacy additions, beneficiary/partner conditions and prior exemptions. The former minimum premium-payment period has been removed, but annual contributions and other conditions still matter. Ordinarily the whole payout must repay qualifying home debt; spending it on renovation is not the required repayment. Payment via the taxpayer can qualify if the taxpayer actually repays the debt and documents the flow. Do not automatically double the exemption merely because someone is married. Payout conditions; annual product instructions.
When only part of a qualifying payout is exempt, taxable interest is (payout − available exemption) / payout × (payout − qualifying premiums/contributions). If no exemption applies, the interest component is normally taxable, rather than the entire gross payout. Refer exceptional sale, death, pre-existing policy and deemed-payout cases for their specific provisions; do not override them with the ordinary formula. 2026 product instructions, 11.3–11.5.
There is no free election to put qualifying home debt into Box 3. Deliberately changing repayment terms can affect tax eligibility, cure provisions, the contract and total tax; do not recommend a breach from a simple Box 1/Box 3 rate comparison. Use the actual statutory classification and refer before restructuring. Describe enacted law as of the review date; do not promise that a government will leave the regime unchanged. Current home-debt provisions.
Sale vacancy: a former home is vacated during 2023 and remains genuinely vacant for sale throughout 2026. The sale-home period can extend through the end of 2026; it does not restart when the price is reduced. Letting during that period changes the classification for the letting period. 10.2.2.
Room threshold: ordinary non-independent room receipts are exactly €6,633 in 2026 and all registration/duration conditions hold: exemption possible. A receipt above that ceiling fails this exemption; do not deduct only the excess. 10.2.1.
Energy mortgage: a proposed mortgage exceeds the ordinary 100% value ceiling because of qualifying energy-saving work. Do not reject it as universally prohibited; require lender eligibility and affordability confirmation. Tax debt classification still follows use and repayment conditions. Government rule.
Free family occupancy: a descendant older than the child-age limit still shown in the annual guidance occupies for free during a qualifying temporary absence. Evaluate current article 3.111(7), not an obsolete age-only refusal; retain all other assignment conditions. Statute.
Missed repayment: one year-end repayment is short. Obtain the cause, dates and schedule and apply the statutory cure rule before moving debt to Box 3; do not automatically preserve relief indefinitely. 10.5.3.
Refinancing: an old qualifying tranche is replaced and increased. Preserve only the evidenced transitional tranche within applicable timing and amount limits; independently classify the additional borrowing. Article 10bis.1.
Payout destination: a legacy policy payout is spent on renovation without repaying debt. It does not satisfy the ordinary repayment condition; examine whether a specific exception applies before final tax treatment. Product instructions.
Wrong return year: a 2025 return is prepared in 2026. Hold any calculation using the 2026 benefit table, Hillen percentage or payout exemption until the 2025 source and assessment data are used. 2025 instructions.
Ordinary home and Hillen (2026): assume a qualifying full-year main home with WOZ €300,000, no deductible costs, no other home adjustments and no partner allocation. Deemed benefit is €300,000 × 0.35% = €1,050. Hillen is €1,050 × 71.867% = €754.60, leaving €295.40 of home income before the return's rounding and the wider income-tax calculation. Home table; Hillen.
Partial KEW exemption (2026): assume an eligible payout of €250,000, qualifying total premiums of €100,000, no prior exemption use, debt and actual repayment sufficient for the ordinary exemption, and no exceptional additions. Available exemption is €207,500. Taxable interest is (€250,000 − €207,500) / €250,000 × (€250,000 − €100,000) = €25,500. This is taxable income, not the tax bill. Payout calculation.
Deliver a property-period schedule, debt-tranche reconciliation, source/year register, home-income calculation, partner allocation and unresolved-input list. Keep supporting documents and client approval; the guide itself does not authorize submission.
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