The deductible purchase costs when you buy a house in the Netherlands are your mortgage advisory fee, the property valuation, the notary fee for the mortgage deed, and any NHG costs. Transfer tax and the fee for a buying agent are not deductible, no matter how you finance them. Knowing the difference in the year you buy can mean several hundred euros back through your tax return.
In the Netherlands, the tax office lets you subtract certain one-off costs of arranging your mortgage from your taxable income in Box 1, the part of your income tax return that covers work and home ownership. This is separate from the mortgage interest deduction itself, which runs for years. These one-off costs only count in the calendar year you actually pay them, so timing matters if you complete your purchase in December versus January.
Four categories of purchase costs are deductible: the fee you pay your mortgage advisor, the valuation report (taxatie) a certified appraiser makes of the home, the notary fee for the mortgage deed specifically, and any costs tied to Nationale Hypotheek Garantie (NHG), the government-backed guarantee that protects you if you can no longer pay. Everything else you pay to complete the purchase generally is not deductible.
| Cost item | Deductible in 2026? | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Mortgage advisory fee | Yes | Directly tied to arranging the loan |
| Valuation (taxatie) | Yes | Required for the mortgage application |
| Notary fee, mortgage deed | Yes | Secures the loan, not the ownership transfer |
| NHG costs | Yes | Part of arranging the mortgage |
| Notary fee, transfer deed | No | Relates to the property, not the loan |
| Transfer tax (overdrachtsbelasting) | No | Treated as part of the purchase price |
| Buying agent fee (aankoopmakelaar) | No | Considered a personal service cost |
At completion, the notary draws up two separate deeds, and this is where a lot of buyers lose money without realizing it. The transfer deed (leveringsakte) moves ownership of the property from the seller to you. The mortgage deed (hypotheekakte) secures the lender’s claim on the property in case you cannot repay. They are billed together, but the tax office only recognizes the second one as a cost of borrowing.
In practice, many buyers assume the entire notary invoice is deductible because it arrives as one line item. If your notary does not split the bill, ask for a breakdown before you file your return. This matters more if you are buying without a Dutch real estate agent guiding you through local paperwork, which is common among expats who found their mortgage advisor directly rather than through an agent network.
The good news is that this split does not require any extra paperwork on your part. Most notaries in the Netherlands are used to itemizing these two fees separately once you ask, and it costs you nothing to request it.
Transfer tax, overdrachtsbelasting, is the largest non-deductible cost most buyers face. In 2026, the standard rate for owner-occupiers is 2 percent of the purchase price. If you are between 18 and 34 years old, buying your first home, and the purchase price stays at or under 555,000 euros in 2026, you may qualify for a 0 percent rate instead, but this exemption is all or nothing: go one euro over the threshold and the full 2 percent applies to the entire price.
The fee for a buying agent, aankoopmakelaar, is also not deductible, even though hiring one is often a smart move for someone unfamiliar with Dutch bidding practices. Neither of these costs reduces your taxable income, so do not build them into your tax planning as if they will come back to you later.
You have two ways to receive the benefit. The default is to claim it in your annual income tax return (aangifte inkomstenbelasting) for the year of purchase, which you file the following spring. If you would rather not wait, you can apply for a voorlopige teruggaaf, a provisional monthly refund the tax office pays out during the year itself instead of as one lump sum afterward.
If you buy with a partner and you are registered as fiscal partners, you can split every deductible cost between you in whatever ratio works best for your combined tax position, including 100 to 0 or an even 50 to 50. This is worth doing deliberately rather than defaulting to a straight split, since it usually pays to assign more of the deduction to whichever partner sits in the higher part of the income tax scale.
Whichever route you choose, keep every invoice and the notary’s final settlement statement (nota van afrekening). You will need these documents to substantiate the claim if the tax office asks for them.
Say you paid roughly 700 euros for your valuation report and simply forgot to include it in your return, which happens often when people file quickly using pre-filled data. At the 2026 maximum mortgage interest deduction rate of 37.56 percent, that single missed item costs you around 260 euros in tax benefit you were entitled to but never claimed.
Stack that against a missed advisory fee, a missed NHG cost, and a mortgage deed fee your notary never itemized separately, and it is easy to leave several hundred euros on the table without ever knowing it. The tax return you file the year after your purchase is not something you can simply redo a few years later without extra steps, so it is worth getting right the first time.
Every purchase looks slightly different once you factor in your income situation, whether you have a Dutch employer or one abroad, and whether you are buying alone or with a partner. A mortgage advisor who works with these deductions daily can flag which of your invoices qualify before you file, not after. If you want a second pair of eyes on your own documents, you can get in touch to talk through your situation.
Figuring out deductible purchase costs on your own is doable, but it is easy to miss a line item when Dutch tax forms are not in your native language.
Reach out via @dekredieter, visit www.kredieter.nl, or call 020-5753320 to talk through your own purchase costs.
No. You can only deduct costs you actually paid yourself. If your employer covers or reimburses your advisory fee, valuation, or notary costs as part of a relocation package, that portion is no longer yours to claim, since you did not bear the expense out of your own income.
You do not need to attach invoices when filing, but you must keep them. The Dutch tax office does not verify deductions automatically at the time of filing; it can request documentation later, sometimes years afterward, so store your notary statement and other invoices somewhere you can retrieve them.
If you are registered fiscal partners, you can still split the deductible costs freely between you, even if only one of you earns Dutch income. Assigning the deduction to the partner with taxable Dutch income usually makes more sense, since a deduction only has value against income that is actually taxed here.
Deductions belong to the calendar year you paid the cost, and you generally have up to five years to file or amend a return for that year. Waiting is not recommended, since gathering old invoices and settlement statements gets harder the longer you wait after the purchase.
