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I live and work in the Netherlands. My 30% ruling is about to end during this year (2021) so for the current year's income tax return I will be asked to declare all my foreign bank accounts.

I am beneficiary on a couple of joint bank accounts that belong to my mother and father. I did not earn a single euro on those but my name is added on these bank accounts (it is extremely common in my country of origin, an EU country). When I declare these bank accounts, the Dutch tax authorities include the question "what share of the capital in the account is mine". Is the capital divided equally among the beneficiaries? I.e., if the bank account has X eu, and 3 beneficiaries, should i declare X/3 that belongs to me, or simply zero (because none of these are mine, my mother and father worked and have been taxed on those)?

Any clarification is appreciated.

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  • You say that you are a "beneficiary" of these accounts; in US parlance, that means that the accounts are held in the names of your parents ("parent 1 and parent 2"), and upon their death the funds in the accounts would be transferred to you. Further on, however, you say that "your name is added" to the account, which suggests that the names on the accounts are "parent 1, parent 2, and child." These two formulations have different legal significance. Which describes your situation?
    – DavidRecallsMonica
    Commented Jul 4, 2021 at 16:34
  • @DavidSupportsMonica Right, I am not sure about the differences. The correct (I think) it's the 2nd explanation (p1, p2, child1, child2 - for my other sibling)
    – PsySp
    Commented Jul 4, 2021 at 16:41
  • The 2d formulation (in the US) means every person named has the right to go to the institution at any time and to withdraw all the funds. is, each person named owns all the money. Your family, however, may have a different plan, such as no withdrawals until both parents have died, or an equal division among surviving siblings, or some other combination. I don't know if or how Dutch law recognizes these family plans. I would find a practitioner in the NL who's versed in tax matters and ask.
    – DavidRecallsMonica
    Commented Jul 4, 2021 at 17:19
  • @DavidSupportsMonica Actually I think it might be the case for the authorities in my home country: there it is assumed that the balance is divided equally among the persons in the joint bank account unless one person can prove that most of the money is hers/his
    – PsySp
    Commented Jul 4, 2021 at 19:54
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    The issue here is how the Dutch authorities view these sorts of accounts, not how your home country authorities view them. While the Dutch authorities may accept the home country approach, the Dutch authorities may as well say "We don't care how you do it at home. We do it differently." You need to find out how the Dutch authorities do this, which probably requires the input of a NL tax practitioner, lawyer, or accountant.
    – DavidRecallsMonica
    Commented Jul 5, 2021 at 16:18

1 Answer 1

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According to the Dutch Tax authorities on joint accounts, when you share a joint account with someone who is not your tax partner, in Dutch:

Hebt u een en/of-rekening met iemand die niet uw fiscale partner is? Bijvoorbeeld met een van uw ouders? Geef in uw aangifte dan alleen dat deel van de rekening aan dat van u is. Uw deel van de rekening is uw geld dat u zelf hebt gestort of dat iemand anders voor u daarop heeft gestort.

Roughly translated by me:

Do you have a joint account with someone who is not your tax partner? For example with one of your parents? In your tax filing, you should declare only the part of the account that belongs to you. Your part of the account is the money that you deposited yourself or which someone else deposited in the account for you.

Based on this, if all the money is earned by your parents and nobody deposits money destined for you then I would be inclined to say that you declare an amount of zero.

Since your name is on the account (at least that's how I read your question), it might be needed to declare the account but fill in a value of zero. I am not sure about this part of the answer. If you want to make sure about this, you can ask the tax agency, either via phone or online (social media only it seems).

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    Thanks! That's very helpful. Actually I've called the Belastingdiest and two different agents did not know the answer to this question. What they suggested was to write a letter to the appropriate department and have back the answer in writing. It doesn't seem that complicated thing to me though to require this. But thanks again.
    – PsySp
    Commented Jul 30, 2021 at 6:42

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