What is erfbelasting?

Erfbelasting is Dutch inheritance tax, paid by each heir on what they receive from an estate, not by the estate as a whole. The rate and the tax-free exemption both depend on the heir's relationship to the deceased.

How big are the exemptions?

Partners get a very large exemption (around 795,000 EUR), children and grandchildren a smaller one (around 25,000 EUR), and unrelated heirs only a few thousand euro. Only the value above your exemption is taxed.

Each heir faces two bands. Partners and children pay 10% up to roughly 152,000 EUR above the exemption and 20% beyond; grandchildren pay 18% then 36%; all other heirs pay 30% then 40%. The calculator applies the correct band split for your relationship.

Is there a single estate tax instead?

No. Unlike some countries there is no flat estate-level duty. Tax is assessed heir by heir, so splitting a bequest across several lower-rate relatives can reduce the total erfbelasting compared with leaving it all to one distant heir.

Are these figures tax advice?

No. This is a simplified estimate. Special exemptions for a family business, charities, disabled children and the precise yearly thresholds are not modelled. Confirm with the Belastingdienst or a notary.

Netherlands Inheritance Tax Calculator

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A Netherlands inheritance tax calculator that estimates erfbelasting the way the Dutch system charges it: per heir, with a tax-free exemption and a two-band progressive rate that both depend on your relationship to the deceased.

How it works

Each heir is taxed on what they personally receive:

taxable = max(0, inheritance - exemption[relationship])
lower   = min(taxable, bandThreshold[relationship]) * lowerRate
upper   = max(0, taxable - bandThreshold[relationship]) * upperRate
tax     = lower + upper

The exemption and both rates change by category:

partner       exemption ≈ €795,000   rates 10% / 20%
child          exemption ≈ €25,000    rates 10% / 20%
grandchild     exemption ≈ €25,000    rates 18% / 36%
other heir     exemption ≈ €2,700     rates 30% / 40%
band threshold ≈ €152,000 above the exemption

Example and notes

A child inheriting 300,000 EUR deducts the ~25,000 EUR exemption to leave 275,000 EUR taxable. The first ~152,000 EUR is taxed at 10% and the remaining ~123,000 EUR at 20%, for roughly 40,000 EUR of erfbelasting.

This ignores business-succession relief, charity exemptions and exact yearly thresholds. All figures are computed locally in your browser and are not tax advice.