The 2023 Belastingdienst examples show the method. A 2026 family loan needs its own current market comparison.
A family mortgage usually begins at the kitchen table. A child has found a home, the bank will not stretch far enough, and parents have savings that earn little in an account. The conversation sounds private, decent and practical.
That is exactly why it needs a file.
Cash pressure comes first
The Belastingdienst examples on interest rates for family loans show how the inspector looks at interest on a loan between relatives for an own home. Their percentages were built on rates from the beginning of 2023. For a loan signed in 2026, they give method, not comfort.
The tax question is not whether parents may help. They may. The question is whether the loan still makes sense when the family warmth is removed from the room.
Kindness needs a file
For an own-home loan from family, the practical tax position is clear. Interest may be deductible if the loan is used for the own home and the conditions are met. For loans concluded from 1 January 2013, the debt must be repaid at least annuitously or linearly within 30 years. The repayment obligation must be fixed in advance.
The interest must be market-conform and actually paid. The loan data must also be reported in the income-tax return. Those words turn the family loan into a ledger matter. Not a cold matter, but a serious one.
The agreement, repayment table, bank transfers, interest benchmark and tax return need to tell the same story.
A founder or ZZP worker should recognise this pressure. Private and business cash often live too close together. Salary, drawings, dividends, VAT reserves, savings, school costs and mortgage payments all pass through the same household reality. A family loan that helps someone buy a home can also tighten cash when the business needs a buffer.
Price the risk, not the wish
The Belastingdienst examples look at comparable lending terms: loan amount, home value, repayment term, fixed-interest period, mortgage security, NHG position and lender risk. DNB also describes mortgage rates as depending on market conditions, risk class and fixed-interest period. That is the logic a 2026 family arrangement has to follow.
Credit still sets the limit
A single headline bank rate is too thin. A parent without mortgage security does not carry the same risk as a bank with first-ranking security. A family loan behind the bank is different again. A loan with NHG cannot be compared casually with a loan without NHG.
In 2026, the NHG limit is €470,000, or €498,200 when energy-saving measures are co-financed. That boundary can change the comparison. So can the fixed-interest period, the borrower’s income pattern and the rank of the family lender.
The old idea of adding a fixed 25 percent margin is a poor compass. The Belastingdienst examples reject that approach. The Kennisgroep position of 6 June 2023 says the older 25 percent reference gives no basis for setting a businesslike rate for a non-demand loan between individuals to avoid a gift.
Both generosity and tax planning have edges
Family-bank planning has an obvious temptation. A higher interest rate can look attractive for the child if the interest is deductible. A lower rate can look generous. Both can be fragile.
A high rate still needs to be market-conform. A low rate may raise a gift-tax question if the benefit exists because of generosity. In 2026, higher-income borrowers face another limit. Once income from work and home before deductions exceeds €78,426, the tariff adjustment limits the deduction benefit for own-home interest and costs to 37.56 percent.
The gift-tax room is also more modest than many families still assume. In 2026, parents may give a child €6,908 tax-free under the annual exemption. For others, the exemption is €2,769. The one-time increased exemption for an own-home gift disappeared on 1 January 2024.
There is another weak spot: circular support. Parents charge interest, then quietly give it back. Or they waive interest later without treating that waiver as a separate event. That may feel harmless inside the family. In a tax file, it changes the character of the arrangement.
Payment must be real. A rate written in a contract but left unpaid is not paid interest.
The parent is also in the file
The child often gets most of the attention because the mortgage-interest deduction is visible. The parent-lender has a file as well. A receivable from a child is usually an asset for box 3, valued on 1 January at value in economic traffic. Accrued interest can matter.
What small firms should separate
The 22 May 2026 Belastingdienst Kennisgroep position adds a sharper point. Where a fixed interest period is agreed and the contract rate later differs from the market rate for a comparable loan, present-value valuation may enter the box 3 discussion.
For practical reasons, nominal value may be used if the taxpayer applies it consistently and does not choose it only for tax advantage. That practical approach applies until the new actual-return box 3 law enters into force.
So the family loan is not finished when the notary has gone home. A fixed rate can remain a valuation question for the parent. The emotional asset is also an illiquid asset. If the child cannot pay, the problem is no longer only awkwardness at Sunday lunch.
The market explains family money
The housing market makes these arrangements understandable. CBS and Kadaster reported that existing owner-occupied homes were 4.3 percent more expensive in April 2026 than a year earlier. The average transaction price was €486,101. CBS uses the price index for price development because it corrects for quality differences.
AFM and DNB have warned against easing mortgage lending standards. They reported that house prices had risen 21 percent since mid-2023 while incomes rose 14 percent. In 2025, almost three quarters of home transactions involved bids above asking price. Starters used on average 92 percent of their maximum loan-to-income capacity.
In that world, parents become the missing bridge. The bridge may be legitimate. It should not be made of memory, hope and a copied 2023 percentage.
The kitchen-table test
A family loan should survive review by someone who was not present at the kitchen table. That is the practical test. The file should show why the rate was chosen, how the risk compares with bank or financial-institution terms, whether mortgage security exists, where the loan ranks, and how repayments move through the bank.
Gifts belong in a separate story. Loan payments belong in their own story. If parents buy the home instead of lending, that is another tax route. Since 1 January 2026, the 8 percent transfer tax rate applies when the buyer will not live in the home themselves, for example when buying for a child.
The family mortgage is not weak because it is family. It becomes weak when trust replaces proof. In a tight housing market, family capital can help a household cross the threshold. The calm question is whether the same arrangement still protects the borrower’s cash flow, the parent’s tax position and the evidence both sides may one day need.
Sources
- Belastingdienst – Current Belastingdienst frame for family loans
- Belastingdienst – Own-home interest deduction conditions for non-bank lenders
- Belastingdienst – 2026 limit on mortgage-interest deduction benefit
- Belastingdienst – 2026 box 1 rate structure
- Belastingdienst – Gift-tax boundary around family financing
- Belastingdienst – Gift-tax rate if a family benefit exceeds exemption
- Belastingdienst Kennisgroepen – Businesslike interest for non-demand loans between individuals
- Belastingdienst – Box 3 treatment of receivables and debts in 2026
Referenced in the article
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