Deep Dive: Hypotheekrenteaftrek (HRA)

How the Dutch mortgage interest deduction actually works in 2026 — the 37.56% cap, the eigenwoningforfait that eats into it, and what it is worth per month on a real mortgage.

Hypotheekrenteaftrek (HRA) lets you deduct mortgage interest from your taxable income. It is the single largest tax benefit of owning a home in the Netherlands — and it is also routinely overestimated, because the headline deduction is reduced by a counter-charge most calculators leave out.

1. What qualifies

For a mortgage taken out since 2013, all three must hold:

• The loan is for your primary residence (eigen woning) — the home you actually live in.
• It is a repayment mortgage, on an annuity or linear schedule. Interest-only borrowing no longer qualifies on new loans.
• It repays in full within 30 years.

Those rules are why the site's calculator only models annuity and linear: an interest-only loan taken out today gets no relief at all. See annuity vs linear.

2. The rate is capped at 37.56%

You once deducted at your marginal rate, up to 52%. Not any more. For 2026 relief is capped at 37.56% through a mechanism called the tariefsaanpassing, currently 11.94% — subtracted from the top income-tax rate of 49.5%.

The practical consequence: a high earner and a middle earner get the same percentage back. If you are in the top bracket, do not assume your top rate applies to your mortgage interest.

3. The counter-charge: eigenwoningforfait

The tax authority treats living in your own home as a form of income, so you must add a notional amount to your taxable income each year. That is the eigenwoningforfait, and for 2026 it is 0.35% of your home's WOZ value for homes valued between €75,000 and €1,350,000.

It is subtracted from your interest before the deduction is applied. This is the step that makes real refunds smaller than 'interest × 37.56%' suggests — and it grows as your home's WOZ value rises, while your interest falls as you repay.

4. What it is actually worth

A concrete year-one example, on a €400,000 house with a €360,000 mortgage at 3.83% over 30 years, annuity:

Two things worth noticing. The forfait costs you about €44 a month here — real money, and more on a more valuable home. And the benefit shrinks every year: an annuity mortgage pays mostly interest early on, so year one is the best it gets.

5. Getting the money monthly, not yearly

By default the refund arrives after you file your annual return, up to sixteen months after you paid the interest. You do not have to wait. Request a voorlopige aanslag (provisional assessment) from the Belastingdienst and the refund is paid out in monthly instalments across the year instead.

For a first-time buyer this is the difference between a mortgage that is affordable now and one that is affordable eventually. Two cautions: the provisional amount is an estimate, so if your income or interest changes you must update it or you will owe the difference back; and it is worth updating each year, because your deductible interest falls as you repay.

6. Costs you can deduct once

HRA covers the interest, but some one-off costs of arranging the loan are also deductible in the year you pay them: mortgage advice and arrangement fees, the valuation report, the NHG borgtochtprovisie, and the notary's charge for the mortgage deed.

Costs of acquiring the property are not deductible — transfer tax, the estate agent, and the notary's charge for the transfer deed. The distinction is the loan versus the house. See closing costs for the full split.

If your home is on leasehold land, the annual erfpacht canon is deductible too, which is why it is treated separately in the buy vs rent model.

7. Nuances that catch people out

The Wet Hillen phase-out. If your mortgage is small or repaid, your forfait can exceed your interest. That difference used to be exempt; the exemption is being withdrawn over 30 years and in 2026 only 71.87% of it remains. Fully repaying a mortgage can therefore create a small tax bill where it once created none.

The 30-year clock. Relief runs for a maximum of 30 years per loan, and the clock does not reset when you move — it follows the debt. After 30 years the interest is simply no longer deductible.

The bijleenregeling. When you sell and buy again, you are expected to put the profit from the old home into the new one. Borrow more than you needed to, and the interest on that surplus is not deductible.

Fiscal partners. Partners may divide the deduction between them however they like. Assigning more of it to the higher earner is usually — though not always, given the 37.56% cap — the better outcome; it is worth testing both splits when you file.

8. Where HRA does not apply

Only the home you live in qualifies. A second home or a property you rent out sits in Box 3, where there is no interest relief at all and the asset is taxed on a deemed return instead — see buying a second property.

For the current thresholds and the official rules, the Belastingdienst is the authority. If you are still working out what you can borrow at all, start with orientation and preparation.

A note on our calculator. The net monthly payment it shows applies the 37.56% rate to your interest but does not subtract the eigenwoningforfait, because it does not ask for your WOZ value. On the example above that makes it roughly €44/month optimistic. Treat its net figure as an upper bound on the benefit, and the table in section 4 as the fuller picture.