The rule
Under the general regime, gains on financial assets held continuously for at least ten years are exempt from the 10% capital gains tax.
It is a simple sentence with an awkward consequence: it makes the date of each acquisition a tax-relevant fact, alongside the price. A holding is not one thing with one age. It is a stack of purchases, each with its own clock.
Per parcel, not per position
The holding period runs per parcel — per lot, per individual purchase — from the date that parcel was acquired.
Someone who bought the same ETF in 2013, 2018 and 2024 does not hold a position that is "about eight years old". They hold three parcels of different ages. On a disposal in 2026, the 2013 parcel has passed ten years; the 2018 and 2024 parcels have not.
Which parcel is treated as sold therefore changes the result. Lot matching (FIFO, or another convention) is not an accounting nicety here — it selects which clock applies.
This is also why a single average purchase price is insufficient. An average price collapses three acquisition dates into none. It can still tell you what you paid; it can no longer tell you how long you held it, and the ten-year exemption is a question about time, not about price.
What "continuously" is doing in the rule
The exemption attaches to an uninterrupted holding. A parcel that is sold has ended its holding period; a repurchase starts a new parcel with a new date. A portfolio that looks stable at position level can be considerably younger at parcel level once partial sales and repurchases are unwound.
How it sits next to the 31 December 2025 value
These are two separate mechanisms and they answer different questions.
The step-up answers how much: for listed assets held before 2026, the acquisition value used to compute the gain is the last closing price of 2025 rather than the price originally paid.
The ten-year exemption answers whether: it looks at how long the parcel has been held, measured from the actual acquisition date.
A parcel bought in 2012 and sold in 2026 has been held for fourteen years, even though its acquisition value for the calculation is a 2025 closing price. The value moves; the date does not.
An unresolved point: what about a loss?
Here the rules run out, and this article says so plainly.
It is an open question whether a loss realized on a parcel held for ten years or more remains deductible. The exemption is written for gains. Whether it is symmetric — exempting the gain and, by the same logic, ignoring the loss — or one-directional, leaving the loss available to offset other gains in the same year, is not settled in the sources Belfolio works from.
The two readings are not close. On one, a €4,000 loss on a fourteen-year-old parcel offsets €4,000 of other gains and reduces the tax due. On the other, that same loss simply does not appear on the return.
Belfolio currently treats such a loss as ignored, mirroring the exemption of gains — a deliberate choice, flagged as unverified, not a statement of law. It is one of the questions on the list for a tax professional, and it is worth raising with the FPS Finance or your accountant if a long-held parcel is under water.
What the record has to contain
Because the exemption is decided per parcel, the underlying record has to exist per parcel. For each purchase, that means:
- the acquisition date — the item the ten-year test actually reads;
- the quantity;
- the acquisition value, and for pre-2026 holdings the 31 December 2025 value;
- for each disposal, the date, quantity and which parcel it consumed.
Broker exports covering only recent years are a common failure point: a 2013 purchase sold in 2026 is exempt, but only if the 2013 contract note still exists. Where the acquisition date cannot be evidenced, the ten-year exemption cannot be demonstrated, and the gain is computed as if the parcel were young.
Belfolio names the positions for which it holds no acquisition date instead of quietly treating them as recent.
For a single sale, the capital gains tax simulator runs the exemption and the rate.
Always verify your figures
Belfolio computes and presents these amounts for information only. This is not tax advice. Verify them with the FPS Finance or your accountant before filing.
Published 11 Jun 2026