Crypto holdings change hands sooner or later: as a lifetime gift, or as part of an estate. For Dutch tax purposes, the Dutch Tax Administration treats Bitcoin, Ethereum and other cryptocurrencies like any other asset when that happens. The practical side is another matter: an inherited wallet is of little use to an heir who cannot open it. This article covers both sides.<\/p>\n
Gifts in the Netherlands attract gift tax (schenkbelasting): a tax the recipient pays on what they receive. For crypto, the taxable base is the fair market value at the moment of the gift, meaning what the coins would fetch on that day. You have to be able to substantiate that figure. The rate quoted by a relevant trading platform on the day of the gift is the usual source, although it is not a statutory benchmark; record which rate and which platform you relied on. Should the price fall a week later, the base stays the same; the moment of gifting is decisive.<\/p>\n
In 2026, parents may gift a child 6,908 euro free of tax, every calendar year. A child between 18 and 40 can instead receive a one-off raised exemption of 33,129 euro, or 69,009 euro when the money funds an expensive degree; that one-off exemption replaces the annual one for that year rather than adding to it. For all other recipients, grandchildren and friends included, the annual exemption is 2,769 euro. The exemption is deducted from the gift first. On the remainder, a partner or child pays 10 percent up to 158,669 euro and 20 percent above that; a grandchild pays 18 and 36 percent, other recipients 30 and 40 percent.<\/p>\n
On death, the estate passes to the heirs. They pay inheritance tax (erfbelasting): tax on what they receive from the estate. Crypto is valued at its fair market value on the date of death; the euro value on that day sets the taxable base, whatever the market does afterwards. Here too you substantiate that value with the rate quoted by a relevant trading platform on the date of death. The holdings also belong in the inheritance tax return, alongside bank balances and securities.<\/p>\n
Exemptions apply here as well. In 2026 a partner inherits up to 828,035 euro free of tax, a child or grandchild up to 26,230 euro and a parent up to 62,110 euro; for other heirs the exemption is 2,769 euro. The rates follow the same table as for gifts, with the bracket threshold at 158,669 euro: partners and children pay 10 and 20 percent, grandchildren 18 and 36 percent, other heirs 30 and 40 percent.<\/p>\n
This is where crypto parts ways with almost every other asset. A bank grants heirs access to accounts after a death; a self-custodied wallet has no such counter. Without the private keys or seed phrase (the secret codes that give access to a wallet), heirs simply cannot reach the funds. The acquisition may nonetheless be subject to inheritance tax, while the heir has no practical access to the funds.<\/p>\n
Estate planning is therefore not a luxury for crypto holders. Record securely where the assets are held and how heirs can gain access, for instance through a civil-law notary or a safe deposit box. Think of the executor too: whoever settles the estate needs to know the crypto exists in the first place. A notary can document these arrangements properly.<\/p>\n
One warning comes first, though: never put private keys or seed phrases in the will itself, and never hand them unprotected to a third party. Whoever holds the codes holds the coins, and no bank stands behind the wallet to reverse a wrongful transfer. Record where the access sits and how heirs can reach it, not the codes themselves.<\/p>\n
Once the gift or inheritance has been received, the crypto falls into box 3 for the new owner, in the category of other assets. On the reference date of 1 January, the owner reports the value at the exchange rate of their trading platform. For the time being, box 3 still works with deemed returns: fixed percentages per category instead of your actual proceeds. For 2026 that percentage is 6.00 for other assets, the rate is 36 percent and the tax-free allowance is 59,357 euro per person. Anyone who can demonstrate that the actual return on their entire box 3 assets was lower may report that lower figure under the counter-evidence rule (tegenbewijsregeling); since the 2025 return, this is done in the return itself. The percentages are set annually and a system based on actual returns is in preparation, so work from the figures for the year in question. See also our main article on crypto and tax in the Netherlands<\/a> for a fuller explanation of box 3, the valuation of crypto and the tax return.<\/p>\n If the crypto sits in a Dutch bv rather than in private hands, a gift plays out quite differently for tax purposes. Dividend and box 2 considerations come into play, since the value first has to leave the company. That calls for tailored guidance from a tax adviser.<\/p>\n Gifting or bequeathing crypto is manageable from a tax perspective, provided the value is fixed and substantiated at the right moment and access has been arranged.<\/p>\n This article is for information only and does not constitute tax or investment advice.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Crypto holdings change hands sooner or later: as a lifetime gift, or as part of an estate. For Dutch tax purposes, the Dutch Tax Administration treats Bitcoin, Ethereum and other cryptocurrencies like any other asset when that happens. The practical side is another matter: an inherited wallet is of little use to an heir who…","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1976,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"callisto_views":8,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1945","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-crypto-tax"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/callistocapital.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1945","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/callistocapital.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/callistocapital.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/callistocapital.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/callistocapital.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1945"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/callistocapital.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1945\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2322,"href":"https:\/\/callistocapital.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1945\/revisions\/2322"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/callistocapital.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/callistocapital.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/callistocapital.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/callistocapital.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Gifting from a private limited company is different<\/h2>\n