Key facts at a glance
Zelfstandigenaftrek
€1,200
2026, down from €2,470 in 2025
MKB-winstvrijstelling
12.70%
Of profit after aftrek
Urencriterium
1,225 hrs
Required per year to claim aftrek
Here's the short version of ZZP tax in the Netherlands for 2026: your profit (revenue minus real business costs) gets reduced first by the zelfstandigenaftrek, a flat €1,200 deduction, then by the MKB-winstvrijstelling, a further 12.70% exemption, and only what's left is taxed as ordinary Box 1 income at the same bands an employee faces. Both aftrek amounts require clearing the urencriterium, at least 1,225 hours a year genuinely working in your business.
The headline number that trips people up is the zelfstandigenaftrek itself: it used to be worth over €7,000 a year not long ago, and it's been cut down by legislative design, year after year, to just €1,200 for 2026. If you're reading an older article or working off a spreadsheet from a couple of years back, the deduction it assumes is almost certainly too generous. This article walks through exactly how the 2026 numbers work, with a real worked example for a freelance software engineer in Amsterdam billing €85 an hour, and how ZZP net profit compares to salaried take-home pay at the same gross figure.
Enter your own revenue and costs to see your exact 2026 net profit.
Open the Netherlands ZZP CalculatorHow the ZZP deductions stack, in order
Start with revenue minus real, documented business costs, that gives you profit before any deductions. From there, the Belastingdienst applies its self-employment deductions in a fixed order, and it matters which one comes first, because the MKB-winstvrijstelling is calculated as a percentage of whatever's left after the earlier ones, not off your raw profit.
Step one is the zelfstandigenaftrek, provided you clear the urencriterium: 1,225 hours a year working in your own business, and that has to be the majority of your total working time if you juggle other paid work too. Miss the hours test, and you lose this deduction entirely for the year, no partial credit for 1,100 hours. Step two, if you're within your first five years as an entrepreneur and haven't already used it three times, is the startersaftrek, an extra €2,123 stacked on top of the zelfstandigenaftrek, again gated by the same urencriterium.
Step three is the MKB-winstvrijstelling: 12.70% of whatever profit remains after both aftrek amounts have already been subtracted. This one applies to every qualifying entrepreneur automatically, urencriterium or not, which is the one relief left standing for freelancers who don't clear the hours test. Only what survives all three steps counts as taxable profit, and that gets run through the standard Box 1 bands: 35.75% up to €38,883, 37.56% up to €78,426, and 49.50% above that, exactly the same bands an employee's salary faces.
Worked example: a senior freelance developer at €85/hour
Take a senior software engineer freelancing out of Amsterdam, billing €85 an hour and clocking 1,500 billable hours across the year, well clear of the 1,225-hour urencriterium. That's €127,500 in gross revenue. Knock off a reasonable €7,500 in business costs (laptop, home office, accountancy, software subscriptions, insurance) and profit before deductions is €120,000. This developer isn't a starter, so only the zelfstandigenaftrek applies, not the startersaftrek.
Subtract the €1,200 zelfstandigenaftrek, leaving €118,800. Apply the 12.70% MKB-winstvrijstelling to that (€15,088), leaving a taxable profit of roughly €103,712. Run that through the three Box 1 bands and the income tax bill comes to about €41,269, then subtract the self-employed Zvw contribution on top: 4.85% of that same taxable profit, capped at €79,409 of contribution income, which works out to €3,851. Net profit for the year: €74,879, or roughly €6,240/month, an effective rate of about 35.4% of gross revenue once both income tax and Zvw are counted.
Now compare that to a salaried employee earning the same €120,000 gross, no 30% ruling, no business cost deductions available to them, taxed on the full amount. Their Box 1 bill comes to about €49,332, leaving €70,668 net a year, roughly €5,889/month, an effective rate of about 41.1%. An employee's Zvw is paid by their employer on top of salary, not deducted from pay, so it doesn't touch this net figure at all. On paper, the ZZP'er still nets about €4,211 more a year at the identical gross figure, even after paying their own Zvw, mostly from the aftrek and MKB-winstvrijstelling stack.
| Line item | ZZP (€127,500 revenue) | Employee (€120,000 gross) |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue / gross salary | €127,500 | €120,000 |
| Business costs / none | €7,500 | — |
| Profit / taxable base before deductions | €120,000 | €120,000 |
| Zelfstandigenaftrek | €1,200 | — |
| MKB-winstvrijstelling (12.70%) | €15,088 | — |
| Box 1 income tax | €41,269 | €49,332 |
| Zvw contribution (self-employed, 4.85%) | €3,851 | Paid by employer, not deducted from pay |
| Net annual | €74,879 | €70,668 |
| Net monthly | €6,240 | €5,889 |
| Effective rate (tax + Zvw ÷ revenue, or tax ÷ gross) | 35.4% | 41.1% |
Figures computed from the live calculation engine in lib/nl-zzp.ts and lib/nl-tax.ts (2026 Box 1 bands, deduction amounts, and the self-employed Zvw contribution). Doesn't include the general tax credit, VAT/BTW, or KVK costs on either side; see the note below.
That €4,211 gap isn't free money either, budget for your own benefits separately
The €4,211 net-pay gap above already has Zvw (Zorgverzekeringswet, the self-employed health insurance contribution) baked in, 4.85% of taxable profit for 2026, capped at €79,409 of contribution income, since it's a real, mandatory cost settled via your tax return rather than withheld from pay like an employee's. What it doesn't include is everything else an employee gets automatically that a ZZP'er has to fund out of their own net figure: employer pension contributions, paid holiday and sick leave, and unemployment protection. A ZZP'er has to build a pension, a buffer for slow months, and their own private zorgverzekering premium (on top of the Zvw contribution, which is a separate government levy, not your actual health insurance policy) into that higher net number. The tax comparison above is real and now includes Zvw, but it's still not the whole financial picture.
2026 is the last full year for the startersaftrek
The startersaftrek, an extra €2,123 on top of the zelfstandigenaftrek for new entrepreneurs, is scheduled for abolition from 1 January 2027, with no transitional arrangement to soften the change. If you're weighing whether to register with the KVK this year or push it to next, that's a concrete €2,123-a-year reason to move sooner, provided you also clear the urencriterium. Anyone already using it should factor its disappearance into their 2027 planning now, not when the tax return lands.
For the full band-by-band workings on any revenue and cost combination, see the Netherlands ZZP Calculator.
The ZZP vs BV tipping point
As the zelfstandigenaftrek keeps shrinking and your profit rises, staying ZZP stops being the automatic choice. Somewhere in the region of €80,000 to €100,000+ profit, it's worth genuinely evaluating whether incorporating as a BV (Besloten Vennootschap) makes more sense: Vennootschapsbelasting (corporate tax) on the company's profit, plus separate personal tax on whatever salary or dividend you draw out, against staying as a sole trader taxed directly on Box 1 profit with the aftrek and MKB-winstvrijstelling stack. Freelancers in Rotterdam and Utrecht consulting at senior day rates hit this range faster than they expect, often within a couple of strong years.
This isn't a calculation this calculator attempts, deliberately: BV taxation involves a genuinely different structure, and the exact crossover point moves with your own costs, how much you need to draw personally versus leave in the company, and rules that shift from year to year. Treat crossing €80,000 to €100,000 in consistent profit as a prompt to get proper advice from a Dutch accountant, not a number to act on alone.
See your own ZZP net profit, month by month
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Frequently asked questions
What is the urencriterium, and what happens if I miss it?
The urencriterium is the hours test: you need at least 1,225 hours a year, roughly 24 hours a week averaged across the year, genuinely working in your own business, and that has to be the majority of your total working time if you also have other paid work on the side. Miss it, and you lose the zelfstandigenaftrek and startersaftrek entirely for that tax year, no partial credit for coming close. The MKB-winstvrijstelling still applies regardless, since it doesn't require the hours test, but for most ZZP'ers below roughly six figures in profit, losing the aftrek amounts is the difference between a good year and a merely okay one.
Is the startersaftrek going away?
Yes, from 1 January 2027, and there is no transitional arrangement softening the landing. 2026 is the last full year the startersaftrek exists in any form. If you're weighing whether to register with the KVK this year or wait until next, that's a real €2,123 reason to move sooner rather than later, provided you also clear the urencriterium and you're within your first 5 years as an entrepreneur (you can claim it for at most 3 of those years, so starting late in 2026 doesn't give you three full years of it either).
Does ZZP pay less tax than being an employee in the Netherlands?
Often yes, even after Zvw. At €120,000 profit or gross, a ZZP'er nets roughly €74,879 a year after Box 1 tax and the self-employed Zvw contribution (4.85%, capped at €79,409 of contribution income), against roughly €70,668 for an employee on the same gross salary, a gap of about €4,211, mostly down to the zelfstandigenaftrek and MKB-winstvrijstelling knocking down the taxable base before the bands apply. But that comparison only tells half the story. An employee gets employer pension contributions, paid holiday and sick leave, and unemployment protection baked in automatically; a ZZP'er has to fund their own pension and a buffer for slow months out of that higher net figure, on top of already paying Zvw themselves (an employee's Zvw is paid by their employer, not deducted from pay). Run the real math for your own situation before treating the tax gap as free money.
When should I consider incorporating as a BV instead of staying ZZP?
As the zelfstandigenaftrek keeps shrinking (it's already down to €1,200 for 2026, from over €7,000 a few years ago) and your profit climbs, the case for a BV (Besloten Vennootschap) gets stronger, roughly somewhere in the €80,000 to €100,000+ profit range, though the exact tipping point depends on your own costs, plans, and risk tolerance, not a single formula. A BV means Vennootschapsbelasting (corporate tax) on profit plus separate tax on whatever you pay yourself as salary or dividend, a genuinely different structure from Box 1 sole-trader tax. This calculator doesn't model BV taxation, and the crossover point moves as rules change, so treat this as a prompt to get proper advice from a Dutch accountant once you're consistently clearing that range, not a number to act on alone.
What counts as a deductible business expense for a ZZP'er?
Broadly, anything genuinely and reasonably incurred to run your business: a home office allowance or a share of workspace costs, business insurance, professional subscriptions and software, a laptop or equipment (often depreciated rather than deducted in full the year you buy it), travel to client sites, accountancy fees, and marketing costs. The general rule the Belastingdienst applies is that the expense has to be plausibly connected to earning your business income, not personal spending routed through your business account. Keep receipts and a clean administration either way; profit is revenue minus real, documented costs, and that's the number every deduction in this article gets calculated from.
Do I need to register with the KVK to work as a ZZP'er?
Yes. Registering with the KVK (Kamer van Koophandel, the Chamber of Commerce) is how you formally become a self-employed entrepreneur in the Netherlands, and it's a prerequisite for claiming the deductions covered here, filing as an ondernemer, and issuing invoices with a KVK number and BTW (VAT) identification. Registration itself is outside what this calculator models (it estimates your net income once you're already registered and trading), but it's a same-day process at the KVK, usually costing a modest one-off fee, and it's the first practical step before any of the zelfstandigenaftrek or MKB-winstvrijstelling numbers in this article apply to you.
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