by MN Gordon, Activist Post:
Taxing Phantoms
If you want to see the future of socialism and its rabid appetite to consume your life savings, you don’t have to look at the history books. Instead, look at the Netherlands.
On February 12, 2026, the Dutch House of Representatives passed the Actual Return in Box 3 Act (Wet werkelijk rendement box 3). On the surface, it’s promoted as a fairness correction to a system the Dutch Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional in 2021. In reality, it is a financial suicide note that turns every investor into a tenant of the state.
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Instead of returning to sanity following the Supreme Court ruling, the Hague doubled down. This new bill is the supposed correction. But it replaces the prior tax on assumed return with a rapacious system that treats your portfolio’s fluctuating value as a liquid ATM for the state.
This legislative overreach ignores the fundamental principle of private property, effectively penalizing success before it is even realized. It also signals a predatory shift where the fruits of your labor and risk-taking are no longer your own, but rather a communal pool for bureaucratic redistribution.
Starting January 1, 2028, the Dutch government plans to tax residents at a flat rate of 36 percent on the actual returns of their savings and investments. But here’s the kicker: actual returns don’t just mean the money you actually put in your pocket. They include unrealized capital gains. These are the annual increase in the value of your stocks, bonds, and bitcoin, even if you haven’t sold a single dime.
You are forced to pay taxes with cash you might not have on profits that could vanish in a market crash the following morning. It is another heist of the middle classes’ future.
Moving the Goalposts
There’s a classic bit of lore famously referenced in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country about the origin of the word sabotage. Spock notes that disgruntled Dutch workers would throw their traditional wooden shoes, called sabots, into the gears of the automated looms to break the machinery. Thus, sabots became sabotage.
The Dutch government is currently taking its own sabot and hurling it directly into the gears of its economy. By taxing money that doesn’t exist yet (paper gains), they are ensuring that the machinery of private wealth accumulation grinds to a halt.
If your portfolio goes up by €100,000, you owe €36,000 in cash by tax day. If you don’t have that cash sitting in a low-yield savings account, you are forced to sell to pay up.
If you’re in the USA and thinking, “Glad it’s them and not us,” think again. During the 2024 campaign, Kamala Harris made no secret of her support for similar billionaire minimum taxes. Her proposal targeted individuals with over $100 million in wealth, suggesting a 25 percent tax on unrealized gains.
While the billionaire label makes it a popular ‘tax the rich’ talking point for the Democrat base, the Dutch example shows us where the goalposts eventually move. What starts as a tax on the ultra-wealthy is soon applied to the middle class once the government realizes that the $100 million club doesn’t buy as many votes (or pay as many debts) as it used to.
