Tax-free gifting to children in the Netherlands

Published June 2026 · 5 min read

Helping your children financially is one of the most common things parents ask about — and the Netherlands is relatively generous, as long as you stay inside the gift-tax (schenkbelasting) rules. Here is how the exemptions work, and where cross-border families need to take extra care.

The annual exemption

Each year, parents can give each child a set amount free of gift tax. For 2026 that tax-free annual gift is €6,908.^[1] Note that two parents count as one giver for this purpose: it is €6,908 from the parents combined, per child, per year — not €6,908 from each parent. You can give more, but the excess is taxable and should be declared.

The one-time exemptions for ages 18–40

On top of the annual amount, there is a larger one-time exemption you can use once while a child is between 18 and 40 (or has a partner in that age range). You choose one of two versions, and you use it once for that child:

• a general one-time gift of €33,129, which the child can spend freely; or
• a higher one-time gift of €69,009, earmarked for an expensive study.^[1]

Two things to be clear on with the study version. The €69,009 is the maximum for a single one-time gift — not a yearly allowance you can spread across several years. And the €20,000 figure that goes with it is a condition on the study, not on the gift: the course must cost at least €20,000 a year, excluding living costs, for the exemption to apply.^[1] The study gift also has to be set down in a notarial deed, and you need to be able to show the money was actually used for the study.

Whichever one-time exemption you use, it replaces the annual €6,908 in that one year — you cannot use both in the same year. But across the years the two work together: you can give the annual €6,908 in most years and still use a one-time exemption in a single chosen year. You can only use the one-time exemption once per child, and the exact amounts are indexed annually, so check the current figures before relying on them.

The one exemption that no longer exists is the so-called jubelton — the large one-time gift earmarked for buying or paying down a home. It was scaled back and then abolished entirely in January 2024.^[1]

A quick worked example — and the case for planning ahead

Say you want to move €100,000 to a child over time. Give it all in one year and you can shelter €33,129 under the one-time exemption, but the other €66,871 is taxed at 10% — a gift-tax bill of about €6,687. Now plan it instead. The annual €6,908 exemption can be used every year, and using it never touches your one-time exemption. So a parent who gives €6,908 a year for fifteen years moves more than €103,000 to a child entirely tax-free — and still has the full €33,129 one-time exemption in reserve, ready to give as a lump sum later, for a house deposit or a wedding. The only rule is that you cannot use the annual and the one-time exemption in the same year. The saving is real, but it is bought with time: the lump sum costs €6,687 because it is immediate; spread over years, the same money — and more — moves for nothing. And every euro moved this way is also a euro out of your future estate, which matters for inheritance tax later — a topic for a separate article.

For simplicity, this assumes no indexation. In practice the exemption amounts rise most years, which would change the calculations but not the mechanics.

Earmarking a gift: three levels of "separate"

Many parents want to set money aside for a child. It is worth being clear about what actually counts as giving it away, because only some versions do — and the difference is what determines the tax.

1. Money in your own account, marked "for the kids." This feels like giving, but in law it is not. The money is in your name, so no gift has been made: you have used none of your annual exemption, it stays in your estate, and it still sits in your own Box 3. You have separated it in your head, not in law — and none of the tax benefits follow.
2. An account in the child's name — such as Rabobank's Rabo KindSparen or ABN AMRO's KinderToekomst Spaarrekening, both paying a modest variable rate, in the region of 1.25–1.6% at the time of writing.^[3][4] Here ownership genuinely passes to the child, so a deposit into the account is treated as a gift: the annual exemption applies and the money leaves your estate.^[2] While the child is a minor it is attributed to the parents for Box 3, so it sits in your return until they turn 18 — at which point both the money and its Box 3 position become theirs.^[5] The trade-off is exactly that: it is the child's money, and with KindSparen they gain full control at 18.
3. A gift "under administration" (schenking onder bewind). A real gift like the level above — ownership passes, your estate shrinks, the exemption is used — but with control retained past 18 to an age you choose. A named administrator, usually a parent, controls access until then; the child can only draw on it with their consent. It is set up when you make the gift, in a deed or a written agreement (not always via a notary), and it is what lets a gift genuinely count for tax while the access waits.^[6]

The pattern is a ladder: intention alone gives you nothing; a child's-name account makes the gift real but hands over control at 18; bewind makes the gift real and lets you extend that control. None of these is a tax shelter in itself — the savings come from genuinely giving the money away, in a form the law recognises.

The cross-border catch

Dutch gift tax follows the giver's residence. If you live in the Netherlands and make a gift, Dutch rules apply — wherever your child happens to live. And the reach does not stop the day you leave: if you have lived in the Netherlands and make a gift within a year of emigrating, the Netherlands still treats you as resident for that gift, whatever your nationality and wherever you have moved. For Dutch nationals, that reach is far longer — ten years after leaving — but for non-Dutch expats the one-year rule is the one to watch when timing a move.^[7]

There is a second trap worth flagging. A gift that is tax-free in the Netherlands may still be reportable — or taxable — in your home country, under rules that work very differently (Irish Capital Acquisitions Tax and UK inheritance tax, for example, both treat gifts in ways that have no Dutch equivalent). Tax-free in one country is not tax-free everywhere. This is exactly the kind of situation where the general planning — how much to give, when, and how to structure it — sits alongside specific advice from a tax or legal specialist in the relevant country. Map both sides before anything substantial moves.

Gift-tax thresholds and the one-time exemption amounts are indexed annually; always verify current figures against belastingdienst.nl before making decisions.