tredebelasting

Tredebelasting is a Dutch term that roughly translates to "step tax" and is used to describe a tax system in which the effective tax burden increases in discrete steps as the base grows. It is not a formal name for a specific policy in Dutch law, but rather a descriptive label that appears in policy debates and academic discussions about how taxes can be structured.

The word combines trede (step or rung) with belasting (tax). In Dutch tax language, the standard mechanism for a progressive tax is a schedule of rates applied to different brackets or slices of income or consumption. In that sense, tredebelasting refers to a tiered or stepped approach to calculating tax, rather than to a single predetermined policy.

Mechanically, in an income tax setting, a tredebelasting would assign portions of income to separate brackets, with each bracket carrying a marginal rate. In a consumption or sales tax context, it could imply different rates applied to different ranges of spending or to different goods and services, creating visible steps in the overall tax burden.

Relation to current policy: the Netherlands already uses progressive income tax with brackets (often described in terms of Schijven, or bands) and different VAT rates by category. Thus, tredebelasting as a named regime does not correspond to a single current policy, but rather serves as shorthand for the concept of a stepped calculation of tax.

Advantages often cited include alignment with ability to pay and straightforward intuition for some taxpayers; criticisms focus on complexity, bracket creep, and potential administrative challenges. See also progressive taxation, tax brackets, bracket creep, Dutch tax system.