@derickr Here they are higher, but because of all the "discounts" I think they are not that higher? Depending on the discounts you can apply to.

Our tax system is (unnecessary) complicated because of all the discounts and the ways you can get "subsidy" on everything you can think off.
Rentsubsidy, childsubsidy, etc. etc.

@derickr Ofcourse this is a valid option 😄. But I have some bookholding-software and doing your income tax is relative easy, as long as I don't need a accountant I just do it myself.

But this is the first time I've dived deep inside our tax system. Just because I find it interesting. And I was just shocked about all the sorts of tax-discounts that exists in the Netherlands.

Here is where I stopped diving into this absurd tax-system.

But we have things like "sub-tractable gifts, mortgage interest subtraction, work-with-subtraction" and this list goes on and on...

And I didn't even talked about all the "subsidy"'s (Tax money you can ask for for 101 reasons. For example your amazing high rent).

But my conclusion is; This tax system is broken. And I will have to pay too much tax, even after all the "discounts" without coupons...

One of last ones I will dive into is "Zelfstandigenaftrek" aka "Independent discount".
If you have some company (freelance for example) and make more then 1225 hours a year on that company (billable and all other work-related stuff), you can subtract €2.470 from your taxable income.

If you're also a "starter" (started a company in last 5 years, an you can use this discount coupon 3 times) you can subtract another €2.123 from your taxable income.

Info:
https://www.belastingdienst.nl/wps/wcm/connect/bldcontentnl/belastingdienst/zakelijk/winst/inkomstenbelasting/inkomstenbelasting_voor_ondernemers/ondernemersaftrek/zelfstandigenaftrek1/zelfstandigenaftrek

Then dive into business/freelance tax-discounts! Yeah, more discounts!

Then you got "MKB-Winstvrijstelling" if we didn't have enough "vrijstellingen".
This seems pretty easy; Just take your profit, calculate 12.7% of that and you can subtract that from your profit.

But.... If you earn more then €76.817 you get less discount. At this point I don't understand much from it all, I'm not a finance-guy. But AFAI understand you then only get 12.02% discount.

Info;
https://www.belastingdienst.nl/wps/wcm/connect/nl/aftrek-en-kortingen/content/afbouw-tarief-aftrekposten-bij-hoog-inkomen

For the "algemene heffingskorting" you have this;

1. Income till €28.406 => You can subtract €3.068 from your tax-able income
2. Between €28.406 and €76.817 you can make some nice calculation for your discount; € 3.068 - 6,337% x (income-total - € 28.406) = your discount price
3. From €76.817 -> Sorry, no discount for you!

Only this seems ridiculous. But there is more... Freelancers have more discounts in more awesome ways! Next post in this thread incoming....

Info:
https://www.belastingdienst.nl/wps/wcm/connect/bldcontentnl/belastingdienst/prive/inkomstenbelasting/heffingskortingen_boxen_tarieven/heffingskortingen/algemene_heffingskorting/tabel-algemene-heffingskorting-2025