"Would I keep more if I just went freelance?" is the question that derails every other Friday-afternoon coffee chat with a colleague who's done the math on a napkin. The honest answer is: it depends heavily on your situation, and the comparison is rarely as simple as "freelance rate minus employee salary, divide by coffee." Here's what actually differs, minus the napkin.
Same brackets, very different safety net
An employee and a ZZP'er earning the exact same gross amount pay income tax on the same scale. What's different is everything around it: who pays for your sick days, who funds your pension, and who's quietly setting aside money in September for a tax bill that arrives the following spring.
Both employees and self-employed (ZZP) workers pay Box 1 income tax on their earnings using the same brackets and rates. The difference isn't the tax brackets themselves, it's everything that happens before and after them.
| Employee has | Self-employed (ZZP) has |
|---|---|
| Monthly payroll withholding, no large annual tax bill to plan for | Full responsibility for setting aside money for the annual tax bill yourself |
| Statutory holiday allowance (vakantiegeld) and paid leave | No statutory holiday allowance or paid leave, you fund your own |
| Continued salary during illness, typically up to two years under Dutch law | No paid sick leave by default |
| Employer-side pension contributions, in many cases | No employer pension contribution, you fund your own safety net |
| Protection against dismissal and CAO benefits | Self-employment deductions (such as the zelfstandigenaftrek), shrinking year over year, plus the flexibility to deduct genuine business costs directly against income |
Because self-employment deductions change every year and depend on your specific business costs, there isn't a single multiplier you can apply to "convert" an employee salary into an equivalent freelance rate, no matter how confidently that one LinkedIn post claimed otherwise. The most reliable approach is to run your real expected gross income through the employee calculation, then separately model your likely self-employed profit after costs, including line items like accounting, the income-dependent health insurance contribution (Zvw), and money set aside for the months you don't invoice because you were on an actual holiday. Treat any rule-of-thumb multiplier you read online with the same skepticism you'd give a stranger's gut feeling about your mortgage.
This article reflects Dutch tax rules as of 2026. It is not tax advice, consult a qualified belastingadviseur for your specific situation.