Filing the annual return - a joint return with a fiscal partner

Filing the annual return together with a fiscal partner has its own benefits and particularities.

Fiscal partners (fiscaal partners) in the Netherlands is an official tax status that affects how you file your annual return and how income, deductions, and tax benefits are allocated. It is determined by law, not by the couple's wishes.

The following are automatically fiscal partners:

• married couples;
• registered partners;
• unregistered couples, if they are registered at the same address and meet one of the conditions: they have a notarial cohabitation agreement, a shared child, or joint ownership of a home.

This means you cannot «choose» to be fiscal partners — the status arises automatically if the conditions are met.

In the Netherlands, the fiscale partners status opens up many possibilities:

• reallocating deductions (aftrekposten) between partners. For example, if one has a low income and the other a high income, it is advantageous to shift mortgage interest or charitable donations and medical expenses to the one who pays more tax.
• optimising tax credits (heffingskortingen) — fiscal partnership allows you to «transfer» part of a tax credit to your partner if one of you has too low an income to use it fully (the amount you can receive decreases each year for people born after 1963).
• joint declaration of Box 3 (savings and investments) lets you distribute assets evenly to avoid moving into a higher tax bracket.

Fiscal partnership may be less advantageous in the following cases:

• high medical expenses that would easily exceed the threshold on their own;
• charitable donations that become too small once incomes are combined;
• significant assets held by one partner, which pull up the tax in Box 3;
• loss of entitlement to subsidies due to the combining of incomes.

In most other situations, partnership is advantageous or neutral.

Many couples receive a larger refund precisely thanks to the right allocation, so it is worth taking these nuances into account and applying them correctly.