Gift or loan? How to avoid gift tax when lending to family

Helping your child with €25,000 for a house is generous. But if you call it a loan and treat it like a gift, no contract, no interest, no repayments, the Belastingdienst will agree with the second part: it is a gift. And gifts above the exemption are taxed.

When is a loan actually a gift?

• No written agreement exists.
• The interest rate is clearly below market, the forgone interest counts as a gift.
• No real repayments happen, the loan only exists on paper.

The exemption threshold

The Netherlands has yearly gift exemptions (for example a higher one-time exemption for children under certain conditions). Anything above the exemption is taxed with schenkbelasting. A properly documented loan avoids the gift discussion entirely, no exemption needed, no tax.

The checklist for a real loan

• Sign a written contract with amount, rate and term.
• Charge a market-conform rate, use our calculator to find the band.
• Make sure repayments actually happen, every month.
• Report the loan in the tax return when interest deduction applies.

FLUX5 automates the entire checklist, contract, signatures, and monthly debits, so your family loan stays a loan, and never accidentally becomes a taxable gift.