[TacticalCoder]

Just to be clear: there are people who sat in a room and decided that it was normal to introduce a tax, at the end of each fiscal year, of 36% on unrealized gains.

In a country where the income tax rate begins at 35% too and quickly goes to 49%. Then on the money you have left you pay 21% VAT on every single thing you buy. I'm not going to list every single additional tax (inheritance tax 20% to 40%, etc.) but there are many.

And then they decided that should you invest some of what you have left, you'd have to pay 36% annually on unrealized gains.

It's pure insanity: thankfully they're rethinking this madness.

[sampo]

Since 2001, Netherlands used to have a "Box 3" tax. It took you wealth, assumed a 4% capital gains rate, and taxed this somewhat fictional income at 30%. (I guess it was pretty much mathematically a 1.2% wealth tax.)

In 2021, the Dutch Supreme Court rules the tax illegal and against human rights, because it taxes fictional income.

Since then, the Dutch government have been "missing" about 3 billion euros of tax income every year. So they have been somewhat desperate to reinstate some version of the "Box 3" tax back. This was their first version, and maybe they worked on it too hastily so the proposal is not good enough to pass.