practically free indeed, vs the practically have to pay for keeping my savings on a savings account... shrugs in discontent (tax is higher on my savings then the interest i get, for those that didn't understand)
The government then makes up that you must be at least getting 4% (up to 9% if you have up to 1M) interest, and it wants 30% of that interest of anything over that 21K EUR limit.
Meanwhile the current interest at banks is anywhere from 0.05% to 1% here (most major banks are around 0.2%).
As a general principle taxing personal investment income should be taxes at least the same amount as labor income. Taxing labor has more negative externalities than taxing investment income.
By practically pay, he just means he has a very low interest rate, and possibly some regular account fee's.