One sale, the real rules of 28 countries — Europe, the US, Canada and Mexico.
Gain of $10,000
Cheapest for this sale
Belgium
$0
0% of your gain
under the allowance
Most expensive
Norway
$3,784
37.8% of your gain
Pick your country above to see yours instead.
Priced as an equity ETF; switch to a single share under More options. Countries that charge gains against your other income are read against a typical local salary — set yours under More options. Live rates were unavailable, so amounts use our saved rates from Sep 10, 2026.
| Country | Rule | Tax | Rate | What time changes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Belgium | Rule10% on your gains, whenever you sell.
| Tax$0 | Rate0% | What time changes— |
| Switzerland | RuleNo capital gains tax for private investors.
| Tax$0 | Rate0% | What time changes— |
| Czechia | RuleSales are tax-free once you have held the security for more than three years.
| Tax$0 | Rate0% | What time changesNothing further changes |
| Greece | RuleNo capital gains tax for private investors.
| Tax$0 | Rate0% | What time changes— |
| Netherlands | RuleNo capital gains tax for private investors.
| Tax$0 | Rate0% | What time changes— |
| Slovakia | RuleTax-free once you have held for 1 year; taxed with your income before that.
| Tax$0 | Rate0% | What time changesNothing further changes |
| Romania | Rule3% at first, 1% once you have held for 1 year.
| Tax$100 | Rate1% | What time changesNothing further changes |
| Canada | Rule50% of your gain joins your income, taxed at 14% to 33%.
| Tax$700 | Rate7% | What time changes— |
| Mexico | Rule10% on your gains, whenever you sell.
| Tax$1,000 | Rate10% | What time changes— |
| United Kingdom | Rule18% to 24%, depending on your other income.
| Tax$1,068 | Rate10.7% | What time changes— |
| Lithuania | Rule15% on your gains, whenever you sell.
| Tax$1,413 | Rate14.1% | What time changes— |
| Hungary | Rule15% on your gains, whenever you sell. | Tax$1,500 | Rate15% | What time changes— |
| United States | RuleHeld more than one year is taxed at the lower long-term rate.
| Tax$1,500 | Rate15% | What time changesNothing further changes |
| Germany | RuleEvery sale is taxed at the flat rate — there is no holding period.
| Tax$1,540 | Rate15.4% | What time changes— |
| Poland | Rule19% on your gains, whenever you sell. | Tax$1,900 | Rate19% | What time changes— |
| Spain | Rule19% to 30%, depending on how big the gain is. | Tax$1,960 | Rate19.6% | What time changes— |
| Slovenia | Rule25% now, falling step by step to nothing after 15 years. | Tax$2,000 | Rate20% | What time changesChanges after 10 years |
| Estonia | Rule22% on your gains, whenever you sell. | Tax$2,200 | Rate22% | What time changes— |
| Latvia | Rule25.5% on your gains, whenever you sell.
| Tax$2,550 | Rate25.5% | What time changes— |
| Italy | Rule26% on your gains, whenever you sell. | Tax$2,600 | Rate26% | What time changes— |
| Denmark | Rule27% to 42%, depending on how big the gain is.
| Tax$2,700 | Rate27% | What time changes— |
| Austria | Rule27.5% on your gains, whenever you sell. | Tax$2,750 | Rate27.5% | What time changes— |
| Portugal | Rule28% on your gains, whenever you sell.
| Tax$2,800 | Rate28% | What time changes— |
| Ireland | Rule33% on your gains, whenever you sell.
| Tax$2,813 | Rate28.1% | What time changes— |
| France | Rule12.8% on your gains, whenever you sell.
| Tax$3,000 | Rate30% | What time changes— |
| Finland | Rule30% to 34%, depending on how big the gain is.
| Tax$3,000 | Rate30% | What time changes— |
| Sweden | Rule30% on your gains, whenever you sell.
| Tax$3,000 | Rate30% | What time changes— |
| Norway | Rule37.8% on your gains, whenever you sell.
| Tax$3,784 | Rate37.8% | What time changes— |
Four inputs, and the ranking updates as you type.
Enter what you paid and what you sold for
The difference is the gain every country is charged on. Amounts are in the currency you pick, and each country is priced in its own before being converted back.
Say how long you held it
The slider runs from nothing to fifteen years. A value of three years means held at least three years, so a country whose exemption starts there is already exempt.
Read the ranking
Bars are the effective rate on your gain, cheapest first. A row with no bar prints the reason it is zero beside it.
Check the rule beside your own country
The full table prints each country's rule, its standing conditions and what happens if you keep holding.
Move the slider once and most of these become visible.
The holding period is where the order changes. Czechia at two years and Czechia at three years are different countries as far as this chart is concerned.
A zero is never the whole story. Every tax-free row here carries a condition, and the reason printed beside the zero says which one.
An allowance is stated in local money, so a small gain can be free in one country and taxed in its neighbour at the same rate.
A fund and a single share are not always taxed alike. Germany exempts 30 % of an equity-fund gain before its flat rate; the toggle shows the difference.
What decides your bill is where you are tax resident, not where your broker is.
| Term | What it means |
|---|---|
| Capital gain | What you sold for minus what you paid. Fees and currency conversion reduce a real gain and are not modelled here. |
| Holding period | How long you owned the shares before selling. Several countries change the rate, or drop it to nothing, once it passes a line. |
| Exemption | A rule that takes a sale out of the tax base entirely. Its losses leave with it, which is why an exempt loss cannot reduce another gain. |
| Annual allowance | An amount of gain each year that is free before any rate applies. Britain, Ireland and Belgium all have one, at very different sizes. |
| Inclusion rate | The share of a gain that is taxable at all. Canada taxes half a gain at ordinary income rates, so its headline brackets overstate what it charges. |
| Effective rate | The tax divided by the gain. It is what the bars measure, and it differs from a country's headline rate whenever an allowance or an exemption applies. |
It depends on how long you held. Switzerland, Greece and the Netherlands charge a private investor nothing on the gain itself, and each has a condition the chart prints beside the zero. Once the holding period is long enough, Czechia (three years), Slovakia (one year) and Slovenia (fifteen) join them. Move the slider and the order changes. Every rate comes from our published tax data file, which records a source and a verification date for each country.
Three of the 28 charge nothing on the gain itself: Switzerland, Greece and the Netherlands. None is simply free. Switzerland taxes you as a professional trader if you trade like one. Greece's exemption is suspended year by year rather than abolished. The Netherlands taxes an assumed return on your assets instead. Belgium is often still listed as exempt and is not: since 1 January 2026 it charges 10 % above a 10,000 EUR yearly allowance. Those two Belgian figures, like every rate here, are the 2026 entries in our published tax data file, which records a source and a verification date per country.
No. There is no Dutch tax on the gain, so the bar is zero, but Box 3 taxes an assumed return on your assets every year above a tax-free amount, whether or not you sell. The chart shows that rule on the Dutch row rather than hiding it. A bill to tax actual returns, including unrealised gains, passed the lower house on 12 February 2026 and would apply from 2028.
Czechia after three years, Slovakia after one and Slovenia after fifteen, with two rate steps down at five and ten years first. Portugal is the country people expect to be on this list and is not: its flat rate applies at every holding period, with a separate rule for short-term sales by top-bracket earners. Set the slider either side of each line and the ranking reorders; the table under the chart prints each country's own rate beside its rule.
Not for this. Capital gains tax follows your tax residence, so a Czech resident using a Dutch or Irish broker is charged Czech rules. What a foreign broker does change is dividend withholding tax, reporting duties and sometimes currency conversion, none of which this tool models.
The United States charges 0 %, 15 % or 20 % on a gain held more than a year, plus a 3.8 % net investment income tax above an income threshold, plus a state income tax in most states. Those American figures are the 2026 entries in our published tax data file, which records their source and verification date. The European average on listed shares is 16.7 % (Tax Foundation Europe, 2026). The United States, Canada and Mexico are the three non-European countries in this comparison, and the chart puts them on the same axis as the rest.
Sell a security you have held more than three years and the gain is exempt; the five-year version applies to non-security corporate stakes, not to listed shares or ETFs. The annual ceiling introduced in 2025 is abolished from 1 January 2026 for securities and stakes, and remains for crypto, which this tool does not price. Separately, total sale proceeds of no more than 100,000 CZK in a year are exempt, and an already tax-free sale still counts toward that limit. That 100,000 CZK is the 2026 figure in our published tax data file, which records its source and verification date, and the Czech row prints it.
Where a country charges them on the same gain, yes: France's 17.2 % social levy is a line of its own in our data and is included in the French figure. Where they are conditional, the table states the rule instead of guessing, which is why Slovakia's health-insurance contribution is named beside its row and is not inside the number.
Deeper guides on our blog that build on the topics in this tool.
This tool prices one hypothetical sale under each country's general rules for a private investor holding listed shares or ETFs. It ignores fees, currency conversion, losses elsewhere in your portfolio, allowances already used this year, wrappers such as an ISA or a PEA, double-tax treaties and every personal circumstance a real return depends on. Rates and thresholds come from our published tax data file, which records a source and a verification date per country; laws change, and some 2026 figures were still provisional when it was written. Nothing here is tax advice. Check your own position with a qualified adviser before you sell.
The same engine prices your own purchases in My Financial Freedom Tracker: what you paid, when you bought, what you would owe if you sold today.
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