Suppose you bought a house and the transfer isn’t until Jan. 15. You will contribute €150,000 of your own funds. It is December 30. You actually want to quickly transfer that €150,000 to the notary’s third-party account so that when you file your tax return later, you had less equity on December 31 of that year and therefore have to pay less box 3 tax.
Is that allowed?
The notary’s third-party account
First, you should note that the notary may charge a negative interest rate on money of yours held in their trust account. After all, they have to pay negative interest themselves. In practice, this negative interest rate is not so bad. You can ask what the negative daily interest rate is that notary charges and then calculate what it will cost you.
In addition, you should keep in mind that if money is transferred to the notary far too early, they could return it to you. So if you’re already transferring it so as not to have that money in your account on December 31, it’s better not to transfer it until December 30, so the notary doesn’t transfer the money back to you right away on December 31.
Transfer money to notary to avoid box 3 tax
Now back to the question: can you transfer your own money for a new house to the notary a lot earlier to avoid box 3 tax? The answer is: that in principle, the notary will not mind and you also had a lesser tax asset on paper on December 31 if you transferred your money to the notary. Tax-wise, however, money of yours that is in the notary’s trust account is officially still YOUR money and you will therefore have to officially report this money as assets on your annual tax return. Whether or not you do so (even if the “chance of catching it” is small in our opinion), that remains your responsibility.