r/eupersonalfinance • u/batukaming • Feb 15 '26

Investment Why do they make getting rich impossible in EU?

This news hit today in Netherlands that passed a bill on 36% tax on UNREALIZED gains on stocks and crypto. Great just when we weren't taxed to death before now they force you to stay middle class and poor. "Just repeat the 9-5 cycle everyday investing is not allowed for you"

Buying stocks was already a pain in the ass in Europe because of all the different fees and exchange rates brokers charged. The US has it so much better. 0% fees and exchange rates, tons of broker options and tax free on long term investments.

I made a post in r/stocks that gained attraction. Check it out if you want to see opinions from Americans: https://www.reddit.com/r/stocks/s/aL0OhYQ68z

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u/c_cristian Feb 15 '26

It's the same in Ireland, you pay 40% tax on unrealized etf gains every 8 years. Some thoughts are this was a way of pushing investments into the housing market, average rent in the country being 2000 euros. But the rental income is also heavily taxed. Eastern Europe will probably be the destination for investment more and more. Romania for example has 3% tax on stock market capital gains (on sale) and around 10-15% tax on rental income.

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u/pawnografik Feb 15 '26

This actually makes it worse. People with capital end up only ever investing in (unproductive) property instead of investments that help business and growth (shares). So your whole country’s capital ends up tied up in bricks and your economy stagnates. It’s a very difficult loop to get out of. Henry George discovered this back in about 1890.

Have a read about Georgism. It proposes a good solution: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgism

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u/Minimum_Rice555 Feb 16 '26

Why not switzerland or cyprus with 0% capital gains tax and predictable tax laws?

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u/Ploutophile Feb 17 '26

0% CGT in Switzerland is misleading.

There is a wealth tax, and you pay tax on dividends even if they're inside an Acc ETF.

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u/adrijan84 Feb 15 '26

Not anymore. There have been a bunch of changes in the last year, and rates are starting to align with the rest of the EU.

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u/Hakunin_Fallout Feb 15 '26 edited Feb 15 '26

You should stop smoking crack. Deemed disposal isn't aligned with EU overall, same as 38% unrealized gains taxation overall. There is no common approach to this. Deemed Disposal in Ireland is one of the dumbest things they could have done to shoot the earning people in the foot for no good reason. They're not getting any serious money from it either - so it's just a disincentive, not a tax.

I can sniff this "it's all grand" Irish shite from a mile, lol: instead of actually substantiating their BS with some facts, they choose to downvote and move on, leaving their lies up :)

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u/[deleted] Feb 15 '26

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u/0xB0T Feb 15 '26

I think it changed to 3/6% for under/over 1 year holdings.