News - Updated policy Dutch earning stripping rule

The Dutch State Secretary for Finance has updated the administrative guidance on the earnings stripping rule. The decree clarifies which financing costs and income are included in the net interest expense and how tax EBITDA is calculated. It is particularly relevant to multinational groups because foreign group EBITDA cannot be included in the Dutch calculation.

Decree and legal framework

The Dutch Earnings Stripping Decree 2026, dated 10 September 2026 (No. 2026-17016), was published in the Dutch Government Gazette 2026, No. 32735 on 22 September 2026. It entered into force on the day after publication and replaces the 2025 decree. The decree is an administrative policy rule, not a court judgment.

The Dutch rule is laid down in Section 15b of the Corporate Income Tax Act 1969 and implements Article 4 of Council Directive (EU) 2016/1164 (ATAD 1), based on Article 115 TFEU. For financial years starting on or after 1 January 2025, net interest expense is non-deductible to the extent that it exceeds the higher of 24.5% of tax EBITDA or €1 million. In cross-border cases, the freedom of establishment under Articles 49 and 54 TFEU may also be relevant.

Key content

·        Broad financing concept: statutory interest, discount or premium accretion and certain embedded derivative results may qualify as interest, whereas Dutch tax and collection interest do not.

·        Comparable financing arrangements: finance leases, hire purchase, recourse factoring and certain hedging results may fall within the rule, depending on their economic substance. Non-recourse factoring and genuine sales of future royalty or rental receivables generally do not.

·        Tax EBITDA: exempt debt-waiver income, participation exemption benefits and the Shipping Untaxed Reserve do not increase tax EBITDA. Depreciation and impairments are taken into account only if they are actually reflected in taxable profit.

·        Specific regimes: no general exception applies to housing associations. Tonnage-tax profit is included in tax EBITDA, while notional interest embedded in that profit is excluded from net interest expense.

Case law cited

For the tax treatment of loans combined with interest-rate swaps, the decree refers to Dutch Supreme Court judgments of 8 November 2019 (ECLI:NL:HR:2019:1721), 25 February 2022 (ECLI:NL:HR:2022:312) and 8 February 2019 (ECLI:NL:HR:2019:199). These judgments address the conditions for combined valuation and the treatment of swap termination payments.

Practical relevance

Businesses should review loans, leases, factoring arrangements, guarantees, derivatives and transactions involving future cash flows. The classification should be supported by the contractual terms, economic substance and tax accounting treatment. Multinational groups should also model the Dutch limitation separately, as foreign group EBITDA is not available to increase Dutch interest capacity. Careful tracking of carried-forward non-deductible interest and the interaction with other Dutch interest limitation rules remains essential.

This update provides general information only. The application of the decree depends on the relevant facts, financing structure and tax accounting treatment.