vruchtbelasting

Vruchtbelasting, literally "fruit tax," is a term used in Dutch-language legal and economic literature to describe a tax on the annual income or proceeds arising from owned property or capital assets. The core idea is to tax the "fruits" or yields produced by wealth, such as rents from real estate, interest on deposits, dividends from shares, or agricultural yields. In civil-law traditions, vruchten are distinguished from the principal value of the asset; a vruchtbelasting would tax the return rather than the asset’s nominal value or the owner’s labor income. The base is the net annual yield after allowable deductions; the rate can be fixed or progressive, and the tax is typically levied annually by the tax authority. The person liable is often the owner or the usufructuary who enjoys the fruits, depending on property rights.

Policy rationale often cited is to capture economic rents and create revenue without taxing labor, potentially broadening the tax base with less distortion to work decisions. Critics warn that such a tax may be hard to compute, could misalign with actual yields as returns fluctuate, and may discourage investment or distort asset valuations. In practice, modern tax systems rarely implement a stand-alone vruchtbelasting; elements of the concept appear in wealth taxes, imputed rent rules, or capital income taxation in some jurisdictions. The term is more common in theoretical discussions and historical accounts than as an active, widely adopted policy instrument today.