I Compared 9 High-Yield Products. Only 3 Beat Inflation After Tax.

Capital at risk on most products below. Tax treatment depends entirely on your country of residence and your personal circumstances; the tax rates used here are illustrative, not a forecast of your bill. Advertised rates are as at August 2026 and change. Nothing here is personalised advice.

Every high-yield product is advertised with one number, and it is always the best possible number: gross, before tax, assuming everything works and none of your money sits idle.

The number that actually changes your life is the one at the end of this chain:

Advertised yield → minus fees → minus idle cash → minus losses → minus tax → minus inflation = what you really earned.

Run nine popular products through that chain and the ranking changes dramatically. Some things that look mediocre are quietly fine. Some things that look spectacular are, after tax, a rounding error with extra risk attached.

The reference rate: what you have to beat

Two anchors, both from August 2026:

So the honest hurdle is not "beat zero". It is: beat a boring insured account paying about 4%, after tax, without taking risk you cannot describe. A surprising number of exciting products fail that test.

The nine, and what survives the chain

The table below uses a single illustrative assumption so the comparison is like-for-like: 30% tax on interest-type income, 3% inflation. Your numbers will differ — that is the point of showing the method rather than a verdict.

Advertised P2P ranges are from Maclear and P2PEmpire (2026); both note that realised returns generally run below advertised rates once idle cash and losses are counted.

The three that survive — and what they cost you

1. Diversified credit and P2P lending. The only cash-like category with enough gross yield to survive tax and inflation with room to spare. The price is real credit risk and real platform risk, neither of which is insured. Read the platform-failure question properly in the sceptic's guide to P2P before you fund anything, and note that the licence matters more than the rate — the EU crowdfunding regulation (2020/1503) sets a floor, not a guarantee.

2. Dividend equity, judged on total return. The income alone barely clears inflation. The reason it survives is that you are also buying growth, and in most jurisdictions capital gains are taxed more gently than interest. The trade is volatility you must be able to sit through — which is why it belongs on rung three of the ladder, not next to your emergency fund.

3. Property-backed and secured lending. Higher gross yields with an asset behind the loan. Survives the chain when the security is real and the platform can enforce; fails badly when neither is true. Our real estate crowdfunding comparison is the starting point.

Notice what all three have in common: none of them are safe. The categories that beat inflation after tax do so because they carry a risk the insured products do not. There is no version of this where the maths works for free.

The leakages, in order of how much they cost you

Idle cash is the most underrated. A platform advertising 11% that leaves 20% of your balance uninvested for a month at a time is not paying you 11%. Check the deployment rate before the interest rate.

Tax is the biggest single deduction for most people. Interest is typically taxed as ordinary income in the year received; qualifying dividends and capital gains are often treated more favourably. Two products with identical gross yields can differ by a third after tax purely because of how the income is classified. Our tax-efficient investing guide covers the account-level fixes, and for international portfolios, withholding tax on foreign dividends is the one people discover too late.

FX is the silent one. Earning 11% in a currency that falls 6% against the currency you spend is a 5% year. If you hold multiple currencies, hold them properly — Wise converts at the mid-market rate, and our sister site prices the alternatives in what multi-currency accounts really cost.

Fees are last on this list on purpose. They matter, they compound, and they are still smaller than the three above for most retail portfolios.

Where to look next

If you want the yield that survives the chain, the platforms worth reading about first are the licensed, diversified ones: Robocash, Nectaro and Lendermarket — with our reviews of Robocash, Nectaro and Lendermarket covering the terms.

If you want the boring 4% first — which is the right answer for most short-term money — our sister site tracks who is actually paying 4%+ right now, and Part 1 of the Yield Ladder explains the traps in the headline rates.

Frequently asked

Why 30% tax and 3% inflation?

Because they are round, plausible middle-of-the-road numbers that make the method visible. Substitute your own — the ranking is what matters, and it is fairly robust to the assumptions.

Does this mean savings accounts are pointless?

The opposite. A savings account is not trying to beat inflation; it is trying to guarantee your money exists on a date. That is a service worth paying a little inflation for. Problems start when people use it for ten-year money.

Is 9–13% from P2P sustainable?

It has been the range in European P2P for some time, and the underlying reason — consumer credit is expensive to borrow — is structural. Sustainable is not the same as guaranteed.

What about crypto yield at 8%+?

It goes through exactly the same chain, plus a question about counterparty risk that most other products do not have. Start with our stablecoin yield guide.

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This article was produced by NorwegianSpark Editorial — written with AI assistance and reviewed by the NorwegianSpark SA editorial team. YieldNav is operated by NorwegianSpark SA (org. 834 984 172). We are not licensed financial or tax advisers and nothing here is personalised advice. Some links are affiliate links; where a partner pays us, our editorial view is unchanged. Read our about page and affiliate disclosure.

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