ZZP tax calculator

On tax alone, freelancing looks cheaper. But that comparison leaves out everything an employer pays for. As a freelancer you fund these yourself out of your net income:

• Pension: employers typically pay most of a workplace pension; freelancers have no automatic pension.
• Disability and sickness: employees get at least 70% of pay for up to two years when ill; freelancers need disability insurance or a bread fund (broodfonds).
• Holidays and quiet periods: there is no holiday allowance or paid leave, and not every working hour is billable. KVK suggests counting on 50 to 60% billable hours when you start.
• Unemployment: freelancers have no unemployment benefit (WW).

How freelancer tax is calculated

1. Start from profit: revenue minus business costs.
2. Subtract the self-employed deduction (€1,200 in 2026, if you work at least 1,225 hours a year on the business) and the starter's deduction (€2,123, first years only).
3. Subtract the SME profit exemption: 12.7% of what is left. The result is your taxable profit.
4. Apply the same box 1 rates as employees. At high incomes, the deductions save tax at no more than 37.56%.
5. Subtract the general tax credit (based on taxable profit) and the labour tax credit (based on profit before the deductions).
6. Add the Zvw contribution: 4.85% of taxable profit, up to €79,409.

Changes for freelancers

• The self-employed deduction keeps shrinking: €2,470 in 2025, €1,200 in 2026 and €900 in 2027 (already law).
• The 2027 Tax Plan proposes cutting the starter's deduction to €10 in 2027 and abolishing it from 2028.
• Since 2025 the Belastingdienst enforces the rules on false self-employment again (Wet DBA), so check that your assignments really are freelance work.
• A mandatory disability insurance for freelancers is in Parliament; the earliest possible start is 2030.