Accounting
Bookkeeping
Zelfstandigenaftrek: Who Can Still Claim It as the Deduction Is Phased Out
he zelfstandigenaftrek drops to €1,200 in 2026. See who still qualifies, what it costs to lose it, and what actually remains.
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Intro
A ZZP professional earning the exact same profit, working the exact same hours, running the exact same business, pays roughly 2,000 euros more in income tax this year than they would have five years ago. Nothing about their business changed. What changed is a deliberate government policy, phased in on a fixed schedule, systematically removing a tax benefit that self-employed entrepreneurs used to be able to count on.
What follows treats this as what it actually is: a specific political decision with real financial consequences, not an abstract tax mechanic. It works through exactly how fast the benefit has shrunk, who can still claim what remains of it, what has genuinely been spared from the cuts, what the real cost looks like at different income levels, and what a qualifying entrepreneur can actually do in response now that the trajectory is set.
From €6,670 to €1,200 in Five Years
In 2021, the zelfstandigenaftrek stood at 6,670 euros. By 2026, it is 1,200 euros. The same entrepreneur, same income, same business, same hours, now pays roughly 2,000 euros more in income tax every year than they would have five years ago, purely because of this one change. Understanding exactly what is still available, and who can still claim it, is the only genuinely useful response to a policy decision that has already been made and is not being reversed.
Year | Zelfstandigenaftrek | Tax saving at 37.56% |
|---|---|---|
2020 | €7,030 | approximately €2,639 |
2021 | €6,670 | approximately €2,504 |
2022 | €6,310 | approximately €2,369 |
2023 | €5,030 | approximately €1,889 |
2024 | €3,750 | approximately €1,408 |
2025 | €2,470 | approximately €927 |
2026 | €1,200 | approximately €451 |
2027 (planned) | €900 | approximately €338 |
Watch out: Several Dutch websites, including some rate calculators still in circulation, show 2,470 euros as the 2026 figure. That is the 2025 amount. The Belastingdienst's own page confirms 1,200 euros for 2026, and it is worth checking that figure directly at belastingdienst.nl before filing, since a stale number circulating online is an easy mistake to inherit.
The political rationale behind this trajectory is not hidden. The phaseout is a deliberate attempt to narrow the fiscal gap between self-employed workers and employees, on the reasoning that employees carry employer social contributions that ZZP workers do not, creating a structural cost advantage for self-employment that the aftrek, at its old size, only widened further. Whether that argument is persuasive is a political question each reader can weigh for themselves; what is not in question is the direction of travel, or how far it has already gone. Understanding where this deduction sits inside the broader Dutch IB picture is worth reading alongside how much tax you pay for the fuller rate context.
The Two Gates You Must Pass
The zelfstandigenaftrek has only two conditions, but both must be satisfied at once, and the second one catches more entrepreneurs off guard than most expect.
Gate one: IB-ondernemer status. The Belastingdienst has to recognise the entrepreneur as an ondernemer voor de inkomstenbelasting, not simply as someone earning income from freelance work on the side. A freelancer providing occasional services without the hallmarks of a genuine business, profit motive, independence, continuity, commercial risk, multiple clients, gets classified instead as a resultaatgenieter, and that classification carries neither the zelfstandigenaftrek nor the MKB-winstvrijstelling. This status gets assessed every single year, weighing profit history, client count, level of investment, active promotion, and genuine exposure to financial risk. A consultant who has kept the same single client for three years, receives a fixed monthly amount regardless of output, and has never actively marketed their services sits in a considerably weaker position than one juggling four paying clients, running their own website, with income that genuinely varies based on what gets delivered.
Gate two: the urencriterium. This requires a minimum of 1,225 hours per calendar year spent on the business, and nearly everything counts toward it: client work, administration, marketing, business development, training directly related to the business, and travel time for business purposes. The hours do not need to be billable to count. What genuinely does not qualify is ordinary commuting to a fixed client site that functions as a de facto permanent workplace. Evidence matters more than most entrepreneurs assume; the Belastingdienst can demand proof of hours at any point, and a calendar with time entries, a project management tool, or a simple urenstaat is the standard form that proof takes. An entrepreneur who cannot produce any record at all has very little to work with if the claim is ever challenged.
There is a specific trap inside this second gate that catches a meaningful number of side-business operators. Anyone who also works in employment faces an additional test: the business hours must represent more than 50% of total working time across both employment and self-employment combined. An entrepreneur logging 1,225 hours in their business while also working 2,000 hours in a regular job fails this test outright, regardless of having comfortably cleared the 1,225-hour threshold on its own. Many part-time entrepreneurs assume the hour count alone is what matters and never realise this second, stricter condition applies to them specifically.
Key takeaway: IB-ondernemer status is not the same thing as simply being a ZZP professional. It is a specific tax classification the Belastingdienst reassesses every year based on the actual characteristics of the business, not the label attached to it. A ZZP contractor can genuinely fail this test, particularly when working for a single client over an extended period without commercial risk or active business development. Both gates have to be cleared, every single year, not just once at the start.
Working out whether a given arrangement genuinely clears both gates is exactly the kind of question worth raising when starting a company in the Netherlands, since the underlying business structure shapes how convincingly that IB-ondernemer case can be made in the first place.
What the Phaseout Did Not Take
The phaseout affects one specific deduction: the zelfstandigenaftrek itself. It does not touch the MKB-winstvrijstelling, the startersaftrek available to qualifying new entrepreneurs, or any of the other ondernemersaftrekken sitting alongside it. Understanding what actually remains is what turns this from a discouraging story into a genuinely useful one.
The MKB-winstvrijstelling, running at 12.7% in 2026, applies to every IB-ondernemer who turns a profit, regardless of whether the urencriterium is even met. It is not being phased out, it carries no hours condition of its own, and it applies automatically to whatever profit remains after the zelfstandigenaftrek and other deductions have already been taken. For an entrepreneur earning 50,000 euros in profit, even setting the zelfstandigenaftrek aside entirely, the MKB-winstvrijstelling alone saves roughly 12.7% of that base at the 37.56% rate, somewhere around 2,385 euros in income tax. That benefit exists in full in 2026, with no scheduled reduction on the horizon.
The startersaftrek of 2,123 euros also remains fully intact for qualifying new entrepreneurs. Someone in their first years of business who meets the zelfstandigenaftrek conditions can claim both together: 1,200 euros zelfstandigenaftrek plus 2,123 euros startersaftrek comes to 3,323 euros in combined deduction, worth roughly 1,248 euros in tax saving. Crucially, starters can claim that full combined amount even when profit falls below it entirely, an exception to the usual rule that a deduction cannot exceed profit, and this exception has not been touched by the broader phaseout at all.
A handful of other deductions round out the picture and remain equally untouched: the meewerkaftrek, available when a fiscal partner works in the business without drawing a salary, the investeringsaftrek covering KIA, EIA, and MIA for qualifying business investments, and the stakingsaftrek that applies when winding a business down. None of these carry the urencriterium as their own specific condition, though most still require IB-ondernemer status to apply in the first place. The logic behind different investment deduction routes is worth understanding on its own terms too; depreciation vs immediate deduction covers how those investment-related benefits actually work in practice.
The Real Numbers at Two Income Levels
Abstract percentages mean relatively little until they get applied to an actual income. Two worked examples show what the phaseout has genuinely cost a qualifying entrepreneur, and what remains once the dust settles.
At 30,000 euros in profit, a qualifying ZZP professional in 2026 deducts the 1,200-euro zelfstandigenaftrek, leaving an adjusted profit of 28,800 euros before the MKB-winstvrijstelling is applied. That 12.7% relief on 28,800 euros produces a further deduction of roughly 3,658 euros, leaving a final taxable profit around 25,142 euros, and IB at 35.82% on that comes to approximately 9,006 euros. Run the same 30,000-euro profit through the 2021 rules instead, with the 6,670-euro zelfstandigenaftrek in place, and adjusted profit was 23,330 euros; MKB-winstvrijstelling on that figure came to roughly 3,103 euros, leaving taxable profit around 20,227 euros and IB of approximately 7,069 euros at the rates then in force. The phaseout alone cost this entrepreneur close to 1,937 euros a year in additional income tax between 2021 and 2026, which compounds to somewhere around 7,000 euros in cumulative extra tax over that five-year stretch, on a business that never actually grew.
At 60,000 euros in profit, the same 1,200-euro zelfstandigenaftrek reduces profit to 58,800 euros; the 12.7% MKB-winstvrijstelling on that comes to roughly 7,468 euros, leaving taxable profit around 51,332 euros, which straddles both the first bracket at 35.82% and the second at 37.56%, producing IB of approximately 18,765 euros. Under 2021 rules with the 6,670-euro zelfstandigenaftrek, the equivalent calculation produces taxable profit around 46,529 euros and IB of roughly 17,000 euros. The phaseout cost this higher earner about 1,765 euros a year, slightly less in absolute terms than the lower-income example, since the larger MKB-winstvrijstelling base at higher profit absorbs a bit more of the reduction than it does at lower income levels.
Both examples share the same underlying pattern worth noticing: the entrepreneur did nothing differently between 2021 and 2026. Revenue held steady, costs held steady, hours held steady. The only variable that moved was a number set by the government each year, and that single variable alone accounts for the entire difference in the final tax bill. Framed that way, the phaseout is less a mystery to unravel and more a fixed cost that simply needs planning around, the same way rent or insurance premiums do.
Four Things to Do About It
The phaseout is not something any individual entrepreneur can undo through their own action. The 1,200 euros in 2026 and the 900 euros planned for 2027 will apply regardless of what any single business does differently. The only sensible response left is adjustment, not resistance to a decision that has already been made and legislated.
The first response is rate adjustment, and it can be quantified precisely. The reduction since 2021 has cost a mid-income ZZP professional roughly 2,000 euros a year in additional tax on unchanged profit; recovering that at a 37.56% marginal rate requires earning approximately 5,326 euros more in annual profit. Spread across 200 billable days, that works out to about 26.63 euros per day in rate increase, or roughly 3.30 euros an hour across an eight-hour day. That is the precise rate increase the phaseout mathematically demands just to stand still, and most clients absorb a modest annual indexation of that size without serious pushback.
The second is urenregistratie discipline, and the economics here are lopsided in favour of doing it properly. The zelfstandigenaftrek is worth 451 euros at most in 2026, and unlocking it requires 1,225 documented hours. Maintaining an hour log costs essentially nothing; failing to maintain one risks the entire deduction the moment a boekenonderzoek asks for evidence that simply does not exist. This should be the very first administrative habit any qualifying entrepreneur puts in place, well before anything more sophisticated.
The third is a shift in focus toward the MKB-winstvrijstelling itself, since many ZZP professionals fixate on the shrinking zelfstandigenaftrek without noticing that the 12.7% relief continues delivering meaningful value with no hours condition attached at all. At 50,000 euros in profit, this relief alone saves roughly 2,385 euros annually, entirely independent of whatever happens to the zelfstandigenaftrek, and it deserves to be the larger focus of tax planning for a genuinely growing business rather than an afterthought.
The fourth is awareness of carry-forward for early-stage businesses specifically. In any year where profit sits below 1,200 euros, the unused portion of the zelfstandigenaftrek is not simply lost; it carries forward for up to nine years. An entrepreneur earning 500 euros in profit during 2026 carries forward 700 euros, which becomes available in a later year once profit rises, and the Belastingdienst records this figure directly on the aanslagbiljet. It is worth checking that notice specifically for any accumulated carry-forward sitting unused, particularly for anyone in the first year or two of a new business where profit naturally runs thin. Getting this level of detail right consistently is exactly where accountant or bookkeeper support earns its keep.
Get Your Deductions Working as Hard as They Still Can
None of this reverses a policy trajectory that is already set in law through at least 2027. What it does change is whether an entrepreneur is actually claiming everything still genuinely available: the full zelfstandigenaftrek where the two gates are properly cleared, the MKB-winstvrijstelling that never went anywhere, the startersaftrek for anyone still within their qualifying window, and any carried-forward amount sitting unused on a past aanslagbiljet.
If you want help making sure your hour records, business classification, and available deductions are all in genuinely good shape before your next aangifte, book a demo and we will walk through your specific situation. Our team can also help you incorporate your BV if that structure suits you better going forward, or get bookkeeping and payroll running correctly so this kind of detail gets tracked automatically rather than reconstructed once a year.
FAQs
What is the zelfstandigenaftrek in 2026?
The zelfstandigenaftrek in 2026 is 1,200 euros, a fixed amount qualifying entrepreneurs can deduct from their profit before income tax is calculated. This figure has fallen sharply from 6,670 euros in 2021 as part of an ongoing phaseout.
Why is the zelfstandigenaftrek being reduced?
The Dutch government is deliberately narrowing the fiscal gap between self-employed workers and employees, arguing that employees bear employer social contributions that self-employed workers do not, which the larger deduction previously offset.
When does the phaseout stop?
The deduction is currently scheduled to fall to 900 euros in 2027 and remain there as a planned floor, though whether that floor holds or gets reduced further depends on future government policy rather than anything already fixed in law.
Who qualifies for the zelfstandigenaftrek?
An entrepreneur must be recognised by the Belastingdienst as an IB-ondernemer, meet the 1,225-hour urencriterium, and not have reached AOW age at the start of the tax year. Anyone also working in employment must additionally spend more than 50% of their total working time in the business.
What is the urencriterium?
It is a minimum of 1,225 hours per calendar year spent on the business, covering client work, administration, marketing, training, and business travel. Evidence such as an hour log or calendar record is expected if the Belastingdienst ever asks for proof.
What if I also work in employment, can I still claim the zelfstandigenaftrek?
Yes, but only if the hours spent on the business exceed 50% of total working time across both employment and self-employment combined. Meeting the 1,225-hour threshold alone is not sufficient if employment hours still make up the majority of total working time.
What is the startersaftrek and is it also being reduced?
The startersaftrek is 2,123 euros in 2026 for qualifying new entrepreneurs, unchanged from recent years and not part of the current phaseout. It can be claimed alongside the zelfstandigenaftrek, and starters may claim the full combined amount even if profit is lower.
What is the difference between the zelfstandigenaftrek and the MKB-winstvrijstelling?
The zelfstandigenaftrek is a fixed deduction requiring IB-ondernemer status and the urencriterium, and it is being phased out. The MKB-winstvrijstelling is a 12.7% deduction applied to remaining profit, available to any IB-ondernemer regardless of hours worked, and it is not being reduced further.
What happens if my profit is lower than the zelfstandigenaftrek?
The unused portion carries forward for up to nine years, provided the entrepreneur continues to meet the qualifying conditions and has sufficient profit in a future year. The Belastingdienst records the carried-forward amount on the aanslagbiljet. Starters are exempt from this limitation entirely.
Will the zelfstandigenaftrek be abolished completely?
There is no current plan to eliminate it entirely. The scheduled floor sits at 900 euros from 2027 onward, though this remains subject to future policy decisions rather than being permanently fixed at that level.
Written by
Nick Knuppe
CEO & Founder
