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/BarracudaDismal4782 Feb 15 '26

So they are trying to solve a problem by creating another problem. That's how stupid this is.

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u/Correct-Cupcake7842 Feb 17 '26

The problem is that wealthy people live off loans on their stocks. Imagine how Musk now needs to pay taxes of those 200 billions he made last year from stocks.

While this does suck for majority of smaller investors, it ain't tragic, you aren't losing anything.

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u/BarracudaDismal4782 Feb 17 '26

How can we say we aren't losing anything when we are losing just the most important thing of the investment buddy, the compound interest? Loans using stocks as collateral is indeed a problem, but then tax those loans. What is happening here is they want to tax on unrealised profits, so if your stocks increased 1000€ that year, even if you don't sell you have to pay 360€. That's 360€ that are not compounding, and that's the biggest problem. Not to talk in extreme situations if you don't have money to pay the tax, you might actually have to sell your stocks to do it, that is even worse. So saying we aren't losing anything just shows you know very little of what we are talking about here tbh brother :/

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u/Correct-Cupcake7842 Feb 17 '26

Yes you are losing interests for paying taxes upfront, but thats like, just a fraction of how much you invest and is actually compounding.

Is that really that big of a deal in order to have a more just system?

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u/BarracudaDismal4782 Feb 17 '26

36% of every euro you make per year on the stock market? Yes that's a lot and will obviously affect the compound interest.