The transfer tax, you've probably heard of it, I'm buying a house which is going to cost me a god's fortune in the first place and then I also have to pay tax on it? As crazy as it sounds, it's really true but fortunately since January 2021 there is a solution namely the starter exemption!
The starter exemption
On Jan. 1, 2021, the Transfer Tax Differentiation Act went into effect. A mouthful, but what this law does concretely is improve the position of starters on the housing market compared to investors and investors. Because of this law, first-time buyers up to 35 years of age pay no transfer tax once when they buy a new home, which must be under €400,000.
Conditions starter exemption
- You must buy a home that you will also live in yourself
- You are under 35 years of age at the time you acquire the property. This is the time of the key transfer- The property value cannot exceed €400,000. This is the value of the entire house including garden, garage, shed, etc.
- You have not used the start-up exemption before. I am over the age of 35, but my partner is not. Do we qualify for the exemption?
The conditions for the exemption apply to each buyer individually. Are you buying a home together where you both own half? Then you pay 2% transfer tax on half of the property and no transfer tax on the other half. I have bought a home before and am under the age of 35. Do I qualify for the exemption? The fact that you have bought a home before does not matter. If you meet all the conditions of the starter exemption, you may still qualify. How much transfer tax do I pay for a new construction home? You don't have to pay transfer tax for a new construction home. You always buy new construction free on name (v.o.n.) because there is no previous owner. However, you do have to take into account costs before the house is ready. Read all about buying a new home here.
So for starters, it is a big advantage to buy a home under €400,000. Unfortunately, current home prices are so high that many starter homes in certain cities are already (almost) no longer offered under €400,000. Therefore, our advice is to look for your dream home and try not to focus on the maximum limit of € 400,000. For questions and advice on transfer tax, please feel free to contact us!
Are you still so sure you want to buy a house?
In the book "Het Belastingparadijs, waarom niemand hier belasting betaalt - behalve u" Martin van Geest, Joost van Kleef and Henk Willem Smits beautifully describe how much tax you alone pay in a morning.
You wake up at 6:35 a.m., because we'll let you sleep in today, in your hard-work-earned-home. For that, when you bought it, you had to pay tens of thousands of euros in transfer tax to The Hague. The government shook you dry because you bought a roof over your head, with money on which you had already paid income tax. Furthermore, every year - in fact, every day - you have to tap a percentage on the WOZ value of your house by way of municipal taxes. From the moment you wake up the woz-meter starts ticking. Or no, the woz meter is always ticking. Twenty-four hours a day. Every second, woz tax money 'flows' from your wallet to the hole in Rutte's hand. Because you live in your 'own' house. You trudge to your bathroom, which you had built for a god's fortune at the time (btw; the contractor who passed on all his wage and employer's expenses to you in his hourly rate), and turn on the shower. Hop, there goes the faucet of money from the "treatment levy" with which the water boards fiscally slap you around the ears. Once again, you pay VAT on the shower water you consume. Tax-dried, you walk downstairs. At the bottom of the stairs you are greeted by your dog, for whom you pay dog tax.
You prepare your breakfast (VAT on your jam, VAT on your bread) and then drive to work. That car ride already costs handfuls of tax money. VAT on your fuel plus per gallon of gasoline 43 percent excise tax plus the tax addition to your leased car plus your road tax. You're dozens of paid off euros further since you got up, even before you've been able to earn a single euro.
Despite this rather negative attitude toward tax, the book shows just how important this continuous contribution to tax is. In the book, the authors show how the normal man and woman pays taxes neatly, while some rich people go out of their way to pay (almost) nothing in taxes. All in all, an intriguing story of how the Netherlands can be seen as a tax haven.
