Volt wants to tax home equity when sold

According to MP Nilüfer Gündogan, this form of tax is easier to arrange than taxing profit on capital. ,,It sounds like a very mean instrument, but it is far from it. Now there is plenty of speculation, and it is also almost impossible for movers to buy a home, let alone for first-time buyers. Why should you have to pay a lot of tax on 50,000 euros that you have worked very hard for, and not on 50,000 euros in equity,” Gündogan wondered in a broadcast of  BNR Nieuwsradio . 

According to the Volt politician, in addition to the low supply of houses, price formation is also a problem. She has looked at the French system. In France, home sellers pay 17 percent of the ‘profit’ made on their home. Equity built up through repayment does not count. 

The party is supported by economist Wimar Bolhuis. He wrote in a column on Friday  : ‘Sellers of properties receive untaxed tons of euros in equity, for which there is no production or labour. And it is not an accounting capital gain ‘set in stone’, but hard realized capital gains. A smart tax on this would dampen the overheating of the Dutch housing market.’ A chief economist of ING Bank also  suggested it once . However, no serious steps have been taken from politics before. 

According to Gündogan, the tax authorities must be able to properly implement the tax measures. “In the Netherlands we have notaries who know very well what a house cost when it was bought, and what it cost when it was sold. There are of course deductible items, such as renovation or insulation. You can then increase it.” The tax percentage has yet to be determined, according to the parliamentarian.