Dutch Budget cuts the starter's deduction for new freelancers from €2,123 to €10
The Belastingplan 2027, presented to the Tweede Kamer on Prinsjesdag, 15 September 2026, proposes to reduce the startersaftrek – the top-up to the self-employed deduction available to new entrepreneurs – from €2,123 to €10 on 1 January 2027, and to abolish it entirely on 1 January 2028. The bill is explicit about why it is done in two steps: abolishing it outright in 2027 “is niet uitvoerbaar” for the tax authority, so the amount is cut to a token figure first. The measure raises €112 million in 2027, falling to €99 million structurally.
The zelfstandigenaftrek continues its legislated taper from €1,200 in 2026 to €900 in 2027. Taken together, a newly registered sole trader entitled to both deductions goes from €3,323 in 2026 to €910 in 2027. The stakingsaftrek drops from a maximum of €3,630 to €908 and the meewerkaftrek percentages fall by around 75%, both from 1 January 2027, with full abolition in 2030. The bill contains no transitional relief: someone who registered in 2025 gets the €10 figure in 2027 like everyone else.
Why this matters
If you are planning to register as a zzp’er in the Netherlands, the tax advantage of the first three years has effectively been removed. The starter’s deduction was worth roughly €650 to €700 a year in tax at the lower brackets once the MKB-winstvrijstelling absorbed part of it, claimable up to three times in your first five years. From 2027 that is gone.
The absence of transitional relief is the detail to act on. If you registered recently and expected to claim the starter’s deduction again in 2027, you cannot. Anyone weighing a registration date should note that 2026 is the last year the €2,123 figure applies, and that the December-versus-January decision is worth more than it normally would be.
Context
Three things people expect in a Dutch Budget are not in this package. The 30% ruling’s reduction to 27% from 1 January 2027 was legislated earlier and is not a new 2027 measure. There is no new enforcement measure on schijnzelfstandigheid under the Wet DBA; the Miljoenennota points instead to a forthcoming Zelfstandigenwet. And there is no change to the thuiswerkvergoeding, the untaxed homeworking allowance.
Watch also for coverage presenting the €0.23 to €0.25 per-kilometre untaxed travel allowance as a 2027 change. It was raised with retroactive effect to 1 January 2026 and simply continues.
Our Netherlands remote work guide covers the wider picture for freelancers and remote employees.
What to watch
These are proposals. The Belastingplan must pass both the Tweede Kamer and the Eerste Kamer, normally before the end of December, and amounts can change during that passage.