It's not a capital gains tax. The Netherlands has been taxing net wealth (with some exemptions, most notably for primary residences and vehicles) at around arou

It's not a capital gains tax. The Netherlands has been taxing net wealth (with some exemptions, most notably for primary residences and vehicles) at around around 1.2%/year. This was implemented as a 30% levy on an assumed 4% investment return on net wealth, regardless of actual or realized returns and regardless of how the wealth was held (stocks, bonds, savings account, bitcoins). I suppose you could say that the taxation is on "income from wealth" (assumed to be 4%, taxed at 30%), but that seems like a distinction without any difference to me. Your net wealth is assessed, and you pay a fix % on it, regardless how much money it actually made. The article you linked to refers to a recent court ruling against that system. (A bunched of pissed citizens sued the government because interest saving rates have been 0% or even negative for many years now.) The government is now scrambling to update the tax code, but AFAIK no change has been implemented yet. Last year's net wealth was still taxed at assumed (rather than realized) investment returns in this years income tax assesment.