The briefcase has been opened once again. On Tuesday 15 September, the government presented the Budget Memorandum (Miljoenennota) and the 2027 Tax Plan (Belastingplan). It contains a number of changes that entrepreneurs may feel in their wallets from next year.
But what does that mean in practice for you as a freelancer (self-employed professional), or as the owner of a sole proprietorship (eenmanszaak), general partnership (VOF) or private limited company (BV)?
Below, we list the most important changes for entrepreneurs.
First things first: many plans are not final yet
The 2027 Tax Plan was presented to the House of Representatives (Tweede Kamer) on Budget Day (Prinsjesdag). The House will debate the plans over the coming months, followed by the Senate (Eerste Kamer) in December. Only once both chambers have approved them are the new measures final.
Some of the changes had already been fixed or announced earlier. Other measures are new and may therefore still change.
Freelancer or sole proprietorship? Your entrepreneur’s deduction is shrinking
Quite a lot is changing for entrepreneurs who pay income tax.
The self-employed deduction (zelfstandigenaftrek) drops from €1,200 to €900 in 2027. This cut was already planned as part of the phase-out of the self-employed deduction that has been running for years. As a result, you can deduct €300 less from your profit.
For starters, the difference is much bigger.
The starter deduction (startersaftrek) currently still adds €2,123 on top of the self-employed deduction. The government proposes cutting it to a mere €10 in 2027. From 2028, the starter deduction disappears altogether.
There will be no transitional arrangement. Did you start in 2025 or 2026, for example, and were you expecting to use the starter deduction a few more times? From 2027, you will get virtually no benefit from it.
With a profit of around €60,000, losing the starter deduction could roughly mean some €900 in extra tax a year, depending on your personal situation.
Other schemes for entrepreneurs are being phased out too. The partner assistance deduction (meewerkaftrek) is cut by 75% from 2027 and disappears in 2030. The cessation deduction (stakingsaftrek) falls from a maximum of €3,630 to €908 and will also disappear in 2030. Discretionary depreciation for starters (willekeurige afschrijving) ends from 2028, and the starter deduction for people with a disability (startersaftrek bij arbeidsongeschiktheid) from 2029.
In short: especially for new entrepreneurs, the tax advantage of a sole proprietorship will shrink considerably over the coming years.
Income tax: rates go up, and so does the labour tax credit
Income tax is changing as well.
For entrepreneurs who have not yet reached state pension age (AOW-leeftijd), the rate in the first bracket rises from 35.75% to 36.23%. The rate in the second bracket rises from 37.56% to 38.16%. The top rate stays at 49.50%.
In 2027, the first bracket runs up to €39,247. The threshold above which you pay 49.50% stays at €78,426. Because that top threshold does not rise with inflation, a growing income can push you into the top rate sooner.
On the other hand, the tax credits are changing. The maximum labour tax credit (arbeidskorting) rises from €5,685 to €5,929, and the maximum general tax credit (algemene heffingskorting) goes from €3,115 to €3,154.
The income-related health insurance contribution for the self-employed (inkomensafhankelijke bijdrage Zvw) is also expected to rise from 4.85% to 5.02%.
How much more or less you end up paying therefore depends heavily on your profit and personal situation. For starters in particular, the difference may be bigger because the starter deduction all but disappears.
Business mileage? From 2026, you can deduct €0.25
Do you use your private car for business trips? Then you can deduct €0.25 per business kilometre from your profit.
This amount applies retroactively from 1 January 2026. Until now, it was €0.23 per kilometre.
If you drive 10,000 business kilometres a year, for example, you can deduct €2,500 instead of €2,300.
For employers, €0.25 also becomes the maximum amount per kilometre that can be reimbursed tax-free. Incidentally, an employee is not automatically entitled to that reimbursement; it depends on what has been agreed.
So do check whether your accounts already use €0.25 per kilometre from January 2026.
Youngtimer? The scheme is changed less drastically
A lot is changing around company cars as well.
The age limit for the youngtimer scheme (youngtimerregeling) was going to jump to 25 years in one go from 2027. That plan is being adjusted.
In 2027, a car counts as a youngtimer from 17 years old, and from 2028 the age limit becomes 20 years.
The addition to taxable income for private use of a company car (bijtelling) remains 35% of the car’s market value, rather than its original list price. Entrepreneurs who were already using the youngtimer scheme in 2025 will also get transitional relief in 2026 and 2027.
For older electric cars, there will also be a new ‘greentimer scheme’ (greentimerregeling). From 2029, fully electric cars aged 5 to 8 years will, under certain conditions, get a bijtelling of 14%. That lower rate can be applied for a maximum of three years.
For new electric cars, a bijtelling of 20% on the first €30,000 of the list price still applies in 2027. From 2028, this advantage disappears and, in principle, 22% applies to the full list price.
A company car for staff, or for yourself as director-major shareholder (DGA)?
From 2027, employers with a fossil-fuel company car will face an extra levy.
Does an employer, from 2027, provide a petrol, diesel or other not fully emission-free passenger car that is also used privately or for commuting? Then the employer pays an annual pseudo final levy (pseudo-eindheffing) of 12% of the list price.
For a €40,000 car, that comes to an extra €4,800 a year.
The employee’s normal bijtelling continues to apply on top of that. The levy also applies when a BV provides a fossil-fuel car to its own DGA.
Are you an entrepreneur paying income tax, with a sole proprietorship for example, and do you drive a business car yourself? Then there is no employer–employee relationship, and this extra employer levy does not apply.
Under the current proposal, cars already provided before 2027 get transitional relief up to and including 31 December 2030.
About to sign a new lease contract through a BV? Then it is wise to look not just at the bijtelling, but at the total tax cost.
Got a BV? Corporate income tax stays the same
For BVs, little changes in the corporate income tax (vennootschapsbelasting) rates in 2027.
A BV pays 19% corporate income tax on the first €200,000 of taxable profit. The rate on anything above that remains 25.8%.
The Box 2 rates also stay the same. If, as a DGA, you pay out a dividend to yourself privately, in 2027 you pay 24.5% on the first €69,607 of Box 2 income and 31% on anything above that. In 2026, that threshold is still €68,843.
For entrepreneurs weighing up a sole proprietorship against a BV, the calculation therefore changes mainly because the advantages on the sole proprietorship side are being phased out further. That does not automatically make a BV more advantageous: profit, customary salary (gebruikelijk loon), dividend and the costs of the BV all play a role, among other things.
Got staff? More room under the WKR
Do you have employees? From 2027, you get a little more room within the work-related costs scheme (werkkostenregeling, WKR).
On the first €400,000 of the taxable wage bill, the free allowance (vrije ruimte) rises from 2% to 2.16%. On the part above €400,000, the percentage remains 1.18%.
With a wage bill of €400,000, that means up to €640 of extra free allowance a year.
At the same time, the separate tax-free staff discount on the company’s own products disappears. From 2027, that discount can still be given through the WKR free allowance.
The youth minimum wage for young people aged 16 to 20 will also go up from 1 January 2027. If you employ a relatively large number of young people, take this into account in your staff budget.
Investing in sustainability becomes more attractive
Planning to invest in an energy-efficient business asset? Then the energy investment allowance (EIA) becomes more interesting.
The deduction percentage rises from 40% to 45.5% from 2027. This means that, on top of normal depreciation, you can deduct a larger share of a qualifying investment from your taxable profit.
The business asset does have to meet the EIA conditions, and usually has to be reported to the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO) in time.
Have you planned an investment around the turn of the year? Then it may be worth looking at which year you enter into the investment commitment.
More room for innovation too
There are also a few interesting changes for innovative businesses.
Within the flat-rate innovation box (forfaitaire innovatiebox), up to €100,000 of qualifying innovation benefits may be included in 2027, compared with €25,000 now. The flat rate remains 25% of profit.
In addition, within the R&D tax credit (WBSO), the flat-rate R&D hourly wage rises from €29 to €33. This is mainly relevant for companies that do not yet have historical R&D wage data on which to base the hourly wage.
For recognised start-ups and scale-ups, there will also be more favourable tax treatment of employee share options. The proposal is to defer taxation until the shares are actually sold, and to tax only 65% of the benefit.
Buying a property to let? Transfer tax goes down
Are you buying a home you will not live in yourself, such as a property to let or a holiday home? Then the government wants to reduce property transfer tax (overdrachtsbelasting) from 8% to 7% from 2027.
Nothing changes for homes you use as your main residence. The reduction does not apply to business premises either.
Is a purchase planned around the turn of the year? Then the completion date can make a financial difference.
And what about Box 3?
Work is still under way on a new Box 3 system based on actual returns.
The intended start date is 1 January 2028. The House of Representatives has since passed the bill; the Senate still has to consider it. At the same time, the government is still looking at possible adjustments to the system.
Until then, the current system remains in place, including the option, under certain conditions, to report your actual return if it is lower than the deemed return.
Do you have assets in Box 3? Then make sure you can properly substantiate your actual income, costs and changes in value.
Not from the Tax Plan, but important for entrepreneurs all the same
Not every change for 2027 is in the Tax Plan.
The net metering scheme (salderingsregeling) for solar panels, for example, ends on 1 January 2027. From then on, small businesses that fall under the scheme can also no longer offset the electricity they generate against the electricity they use in the same way.
For freelancers, the debate around false self-employment (schijnzelfstandigheid) also remains important. The DBA Act (Wet DBA) is currently being fully enforced, and the government is working on a new Self-Employed Persons Act (Zelfstandigenwet). It is intended to come into force in 2028, but the details are still being worked out.
E-invoicing is on its way too. From 1 July 2030, the Netherlands wants to make electronic invoices mandatory for business-to-business transactions, both domestically and for relevant cross-border EU transactions. For domestic transactions, the digital reporting obligation follows from 1 July 2031. Entrepreneurs who use the small business scheme (KOR) are exempt.
That is still a long way off, but if you switch to different accounting software in the coming years, it is not a bad idea to check whether it is ready for this.
What can you do now?
Most entrepreneurs don’t need to turn everything upside down straight after Budget Day. There are, however, a few things you can already check.
Are you a starter who meets the conditions for the starter deduction in 2026? Then bear in mind that the tax advantage disappears almost entirely from 2027.
Do you use your private car for business? Check whether your business kilometres from 1 January 2026 are being processed at €0.25 per kilometre.
Planning an energy investment, a new company car or the purchase of a property to let? Then look carefully at the timing around the turn of the year.
And have you been wondering for a while whether a sole proprietorship or a BV still suits your situation best? With the further phase-out of the entrepreneur’s deduction, it may be wise to redo that calculation. A BV does not automatically become more advantageous, but the balance does shift.
In short
For existing freelancers, the changes in 2027 are relatively limited on many points. The self-employed deduction falls further and the Box 1 rates go up slightly, while the labour tax credit rises at the same time.
For starters, the impact is greater: the starter deduction goes from €2,123 to practically zero and disappears completely from 2028.
Entrepreneurs who invest in sustainability or innovation, on the other hand, get more tax room. And for entrepreneurs with a BV, staff or a company car, there are a number of changes to bear in mind.
Important: the 2027 Tax Plan is not final yet. The plans may still change while they are being debated in the House of Representatives and the Senate.
Want to know what the changes mean specifically for your business? Then we at TaxMate will gladly take a look with you.