Tax-Free Investment Accounts in Europe: 2026 Country Guide

Europe now has seven different answers to one question: can you invest without being taxed on every gain? Sweden, France and Italy already have tax-free investment accounts. Germany opens one on 1 January 2027. Spain created one on 30 September 2026 and lost it two days later when Congress voted down the decree it was in. Italy and Portugal have drafts on a minister's desk. The Netherlands is waiting for its Box 3 reform.

And if you invest through DEGIRO, you won't find the Swedish, French or German one in your account.

This guide covers where each country stands in October 2026, what the accounts actually pay, and what happens to your portfolio when you end up with two brokers instead of one.

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What is a tax-free investment account?

A tax-free investment account is a brokerage account with a special tax regime: gains and dividends inside it are untaxed, taxed later, or taxed at a flat yearly rate instead of on each sale. The EU calls the generic version a savings and investment account (SIA).

The idea went European on 30 September 2025, when the European Commission published a recommendation on savings and investment accounts. It asks every member state to offer one, with access to at least shares, bonds and UCITS funds (so ETFs count). It suggests four tax models: deductible contributions, tax-free returns, tax deferred until withdrawal, or one flat rate. Sweden's ISK and France's PEA are the working models most often cited.

It is a recommendation, not a law. Each government decides if it wants one and what it looks like. That is why the map below looks so uneven.

A second layer sits on top. In June 2025, seven countries (France, Spain, Germany, the Netherlands, Portugal, Luxembourg and Estonia) launched Finance Europe, a voluntary label for savings products that put at least 70% of their money into European assets and aim for five years or more. Keep that 70% figure in mind. It comes back later.

Tax-free investment accounts by country, October 2026

Tax rules change and your own situation matters. Treat this table as a map, then check the details with a tax advisor in your country.

Sweden's ISK: the model everyone copies

The Swedish investeringssparkonto is the account Brussels points to when it explains what it wants. You never pay tax when you sell or receive a dividend inside it. Instead you pay a small yearly tax on the account's value.

For 2026, the first SEK 300,000 across all your ISKs is tax-free, double the 2025 level. Above that, the effective rate is about 1.065% of the value per year. No contribution cap, no lock-in, any listed security.

DEGIRO does not offer an ISK. Swedish investors who want one use local brokers such as Avanza or Nordnet.

France's PEA: the oldest one, now slightly pricier

The plan d'épargne en actions has existed since 1992. You can pay in up to €150,000. After five years, gains leave the account free of income tax. You still pay social charges, and those went up on 1 January 2026, from 17.2% to 18.6%.

That still beats a regular French brokerage account, where gains are taxed at a flat 31.4% in 2026. On a €20,000 gain, that is €6,280 on a regular account against €3,720 in a PEA held for five years.

The catch: a PEA only holds shares of companies based in the EU or EEA, plus funds that meet that rule. No Apple, no Microsoft, no US-domiciled anything. DEGIRO does not offer a PEA at all.

Italy's PIR, and the new SIA proposal

Italy's piani individuali di risparmio remove the usual 26% tax on gains and dividends if you hold each investment for five years. You can put in €40,000 a year and €200,000 in total, one PIR per person.

The rule that limits it: at least 70% must go into Italian companies, or EU companies with a permanent base in Italy. That makes a PIR a bet on Italy's mid caps, not a home for a global ETF portfolio.

The bigger news came at the end of September. AMF Italia, Bocconi University's Baffi centre and the broker Equita presented the economy ministry with a design for an Italian SIA: EU shares, funds and ETFs, an annual cap, a low flat tax instead of 26%, and no minimum holding period. It could go into the next budget law if the government finds the money. Until then, it is a proposal.

Germany's Altersvorsorgedepot: the big one, from January 2027

Germany passed its reform in spring 2026 (Bundestag on 27 March, Bundesrat on 8 May). From 1 January 2027 the Altersvorsorgedepot replaces the Riester pension with something closer to a real brokerage account. The federal government's Q&A sets out the numbers:

• 50 cents from the state for every euro you put in, up to €360 a year
• 25 cents per euro on top of that, up to €1,800 a year, for a maximum of €540
• €300 per child per year, in full from €25 a month of savings
• a one-off €200 bonus if you sign before your 25th birthday
• up to €6,840 a year of contributions, costs capped at 1% in the standard depot

Put in €1,800 and the state adds €540. That is a 30% return before the market does anything. Gains are not taxed while you save, and are taxed when you draw the money in retirement. Self-employed people qualify for the first time.

Providers are already lining up: Trade Republic, Scalable Capital, ING, comdirect, DKB and others. On 24 September 2026, flatexDEGIRO announced three Altersvorsorgedepot models with no custody fees, no order fees, and fund costs refunded for the first five years.

Read that carefully, though. The product runs under the flatex brand. DEGIRO, the same group's cross-border broker, does not offer it. A German DEGIRO customer who wants the subsidy needs a second account, at flatex or anywhere else.

If you are weighing that choice, our Trade Republic vs DEGIRO comparison covers the everyday costs that still apply outside the wrapper.

Spain's Cuenta Financia Europa: created on Wednesday, gone by Friday

This one moved fast. On 30 September 2026, Spain's official gazette published Real Decreto-ley 26/2026, a housing decree. Inside it was the Cuenta de Ahorro e Inversión Financia Europa:

• one account per person, up to €150,000 of contributions
• listed shares of EU or EEA companies, or funds and ETFs that keep at least 70% of their portfolio in European assets and at least 50% in shares
• trade freely inside it without paying tax on each sale
• after five years, the first €10,000 of gains fully tax-free, plus 20% of any gain above that

For scale: on a €10,000 gain, Spain's savings tax (19% on the first €6,000, 21% on the next band) comes to €1,980. That was the size of the gift.

Then on 2 October, Congress refused to validate the decree, 178 votes to 172. A royal decree-law that Congress rejects is repealed, and the account fell with the housing measures it was attached to. The repeal order is in the official gazette. Nobody lost anything: the account could not be sold until a ministerial order came out, and none had.

The government can bring it back with a new decree or a normal bill. Much of the coverage published this week still describes the account as live. It is not.

Portugal and the Netherlands: still waiting

Portugal already has PPR retirement plans, which give an income tax deduction of 20% of what you pay in, capped at €400, €350 or €300 depending on age. A real investment account is closer than it was. The market regulator CMVM has sent the government a draft for a Conta Individual de Poupança e Investimento (CIPI), Parliament rejected a separate liberal (IL) bill for tax-free accounts of up to €20,000 a year in June, and the finance minister says a wider savings plan is coming. Any version needs a vote in parliament.

The Netherlands signed up to the Finance Europe label but has no account of its own. The cabinet has said it likes the SIA idea in principle, but only after the new Box 3 system on actual returns is in place, now aimed at 2028. Until then, Dutch investors pay Box 3 on everything. Our guide to how Dutch investors are preparing for Box 3 in 2028 covers what that means for your portfolio now.

Why DEGIRO doesn't offer them

DEGIRO sells one product across most of Europe from a single German banking licence. National tax accounts need a provider that handles each country's tax reporting and, in some cases, a local authorisation. In Sweden, DEGIRO's own help pages say you cannot open an ISK with it. In France there is no PEA. In Germany the new account sits at flatex, not DEGIRO.

That is the structural trade-off of a cross-border broker: low fees and the same account everywhere, but no local tax wrapper. Our DEGIRO fees breakdown shows the cost side of that deal.

So for most DEGIRO users, the realistic outcome is not "move everything". It is two accounts: a local wrapper for the part of the portfolio that qualifies, and DEGIRO for everything else.

The catch nobody mentions: your allocation splits in two

Look at the eligibility rules again. PEA: EU and EEA only. PIR: 70% Italian. Spain's account: European shares, or funds that are at least 70% European. Finance Europe label: 70% European. Only the Swedish ISK and Germany's new depot are close to neutral.

That means the wrapper fills up with European assets, and the global part, US tech and world ETFs, stays at DEGIRO. Each broker's app then shows you a lopsided half.

A simple example. You hold €40,000 in a PEA, all European shares. You hold €60,000 at DEGIRO, 80% in US stocks.

Neither app is wrong. Neither one shows the portfolio you actually own. The same goes for returns: one account's gains are taxed, the other's are not, and the dividend income arrives in two places. If you rebalance off one app's numbers, you rebalance the wrong portfolio.

This is the problem Zune.Money's DEGIRO portfolio tracker was built for: import the DEGIRO CSV, add the other account's trades as manual transactions, and see one allocation and one return figure for both.

How to decide in five steps

1. Check if your country's account is live. In October 2026, that means Sweden, France and Italy today, Germany from January. Everyone else is waiting.
2. Check if your plan fits the asset rules. A global ETF investor gets more from Germany's depot or a Swedish ISK than from a PIR that wants 70% in Italy.
3. Count the lock-in. Most of these accounts need five years for the full benefit. Money you may need sooner belongs elsewhere.
4. Compare the extra cost. A second broker means a second set of fees. On a small portfolio, the tax saving can be smaller than the fees.
5. Plan how you will track both. Before you open the second account, decide where you will see the combined total. A spreadsheet works for a few months. It rarely survives the first dividend season.

For more on that last step, see how to track a DEGIRO portfolio in 2026.

What to watch next

Three dates matter for the rest of 2026. Germany's providers will publish final terms before the 1 January launch. Italy's budget law for 2027 will show if the SIA proposal made it in. Spain's government will have to decide whether to bring the Financia Europa account back on its own, without a housing decree attached.

If you already run two accounts, or are about to, import your DEGIRO CSV into Zune.Money and see the combined portfolio. It takes a few minutes and the free plan covers it.