Americans thinking of moving to Europe? Here's some things you should know about stocks and taxes.

Many people have been thinking about moving to Europe permanently from the US recently according to some news and discussions. I'd figure that I can share some useful information on financial and tax side here for someone that lives in Netherlands.

EU is a mix of socialist/capitalist at it's core allowing mega corpos to exist but with high taxes for both citizens and businesses to fund the strong social welfare systems. Like the states, all EU countries are independant but have universal laws that everyone needs to uphold and achieve union. For example a minimum 5% VAT (sales tax) on all products/services and have common goals.

15 out of 27 EU countries have high taxes on stocks/capital gains and the remaining are poor Eastern European countries and tax havens to attract wealthy people and workers. The average rate at around 20% and goes up to 42% with very low income thresholds.

Recently many countries have pushed higher tax rates due to aging population and high unemployment rate. Now \[Netherlands\](https://bfmtimes.com/netherlands-to-rethink-36-tax-on-unrealized-gains/) approved a bill to make investing problematic with a 36% tax rate on unrealized gains. For example if your $50k invested stocks grow up to $100k this year, you will owe the government $18k in taxes even if you don't sell and liquidate your investments.