Car traders and other professional dealers will no longer be able to accept cash payments of more than €3,000 from 2026, if finance minister Steven van Weyenberg and justice minister Dilan Yesilgöz have their way.

The ministers plan to press ahead with legislation to outlaw large cash payments even though parliament declared the issue to be “controversial” and so out of bounds to the caretaker cabinet.

However, if the measure, designed to cut down on money laundering, is not implemented by March next year, the Netherlands risks losing some €600 million in European funding, the ministers told parliament in a briefing.

A legal limit on cash payments was included in the conditions attached to the funding the Netherlands received from the European recovery plan.

The ministers’ preference for the time being is to bring the limit on cash payments as an amendment to existing legislation rather than as part of a separate bill, which was presented to parliament in 2022 and is now on ice.

Other plans to crack down on money laundering, such as joint monitoring by banks, will then be covered by European legislation which will be voted on by the European parliament on April 24 and, if passed, implemented in 2027.