Dividend tax

If a private or public limited company (BV or NV) is profitable, they can distribute part of that profit to shareholders. This usually takes the form of a dividend. The company that issues the dividend must withhold the dividend tax and pay this to the Netherlands Tax Administration (Belastingdienst).

If you live or are established in a country other than the Netherlands and you have shares in a Dutch company, you may be exempt from or receive a refund for the  Dutch dividend tax.

Filing a dividend tax return

If you pay dividend, you must file a return for dividend tax. For this, you have to use the Mijn Belastingdienst Zakelijk portal, accounting software, or their tax services provider. To file a dividend tax return for 2023 or earlier you should use the Dividend tax return form (Aangifte dividendbelasting, in Dutch).

You must file your return within 1 month of the dividend being issued. On the return form, you enter the amount of tax that the company deducted from the dividends issued. When you pay dividend tax, you must use a different bank account than you use for your other taxes.

Offsetting dividend tax

If you receive a dividend, you may offset the dividend tax against income tax. You must indicate on your return how much you received as a dividend and how much dividend tax was deducted.

If the shareholder receiving the dividend is a private or public limited company (BV or NV) they can offset the dividend against the corporate income tax. This is only allowed with corporate income tax payable by the BV or NV. In some cases you may be eligible for a (partial) exemption or refund of dividend tax, so that you do not have to offset it.

Dividend tax rate

The dividend tax rate is 15%.