How does the zelfstandigenaftrek (self-employed deduction) work?
The deduction lowers your taxable profit and so carries through into your income tax and your contributions. Because it is a fixed amount and not a percentage, the effect is relatively larger at a low profit and smaller at a high one.
The phase-out is deliberate policy and follows a path that is already in the law. That means you do not have to guess for an estimate of next year: the amount for the coming year is known as soon as the path is set. What does have to be checked every year is whether the path has stayed unchanged.
With a profit lower than the deduction, the deduction cannot be fully used in that year. What then happens to the remainder is connected to loss relief (verliesverrekening) and to whether you meet the urencriterium. That is the kind of interplay where an estimate does not replace an adviser.
What happens in a loss year is the part most often misunderstood, and it makes a difference in money. The zelfstandigenaftrek may not lower your profit below zero: it cannot make a loss larger. But the part you cannot use because of that is not gone. It carries forward as niet-gerealiseerde zelfstandigenaftrek (unused self-employed deduction), and you can offset it in the nine following years, provided you make a profit in that year and meet the urencriterium.
From this follows a bookkeeping requirement that goes further than a balance. Every carried-forward part lives per year of origin, because the nine years run per year. If you keep only the total, you can later no longer show which year supplied which part, and then the offset cannot be substantiated. If you have wages from a job alongside your business, those wages help determine which bracket your profit falls into; an estimate without your full income is therefore not correct.
Where is the zelfstandigenaftrek (self-employed deduction) in the law?
These legal sources come from the specialist dossiers that were reviewed on 24 August 2026. Mind the difference that becomes large in a dispute: a statutory article next to a value is where that value is found, not a justification for how it applies to your situation.
- Article 3.76 of the Dutch Income Tax Act (Wet IB 2001)the zelfstandigenaftrek and the amount; €1,200 for 2026, €900 for 2027 as the end point of the phase-out path
- Article 3.6 of the Dutch Income Tax Act (Wet IB 2001)the urencriterium to which the deduction is linked
The links go to the statutory text on wetten.overheid.nl, in the version that applied on 24 September 2026.
What does basestep do with the zelfstandigenaftrek (self-employed deduction)?
The estimate of your income tax calculates with the rates of the year itself and shows the values used with source and check date. If you indicate that you do not meet the urencriterium, the deduction disappears from the calculation and the reason is shown with it.
All calculations, explanations and signals in basestep are calculation support and instruction, not tax or legal advice. Amounts are estimates based on your own input; the Dutch tax authority (Belastingdienst) sets the assessment.
Where does it go wrong with the zelfstandigenaftrek (self-employed deduction)?
The two mistakes you run into most often in practice with this term, and what they cost you.
Seeing the deduction as lost in a loss year
It does not lower your profit below zero, but the unused part carries forward to the nine following years. If you do not record that per year of origin, you cannot substantiate the offset later.
Keeping last year's amount
The amount falls every year along the phase-out path. An estimate with last year's amount comes out structurally too favourable.
Assuming the deduction without hours
Without the urencriterium there is no zelfstandigenaftrek. That is one of the biggest differences between an optimistic and a realistic estimate.
Further reading
Three places this term is tied to, inside this glossary and beyond.