Word of Belastingdienst (tax office) payouts spreads quickly among people with savings here, and the details get garbled in the retelling. A run of Supreme Court rulings, a compensation operation now largely closed for the earliest years, and a still-running route for later years are three separate things — and only one of them remains open.
Because for years, the Netherlands taxed savings and investments on a fictional, assumed return rather than what you actually made — and for anyone holding mostly cash during a low-interest period, that assumed return was often way higher than reality. The Hoge Raad (Supreme Court) ruled back in December 2021 that this breached property rights when your real return was lower than the fictional one, and a string of follow-up rulings — including one in December 2024 that pinned down exactly how "actual return" should be calculated — forced the Belastingdienst into a large compensation operation (rechtsherstel). As of August 2026, that operation is mostly wound down for the earliest years: the Hoge Raad confirmed in June 2026 that people who never formally objected for 2017–2020 aren't entitled to a payout. But a standing mechanism remains for later years — the "Opgaaf Werkelijk Rendement" (actual-return statement) — letting you prove your real return was lower and get taxed on that instead, for tax years running through 2027. A permanent, fully real-return-based system is targeted for 2028, though that date is still being negotiated in parliament and could slip.