Can ZZP'ers use the Dutch 30% ruling?

Not directly. The 30% ruling is an employee scheme, applied through payroll tax. The only way a freelancer can access it is by incorporating a BV and becoming its DGA (director-major shareholder), which makes them an employee of their own company rather than a sole proprietor.

What is the DGA gebruikelijkloon requirement in 2026?

A DGA must pay themselves at least €58,000 a year in 2026, or the market rate for comparable work if that's higher. Starters get a 3-year exception at 75% of the customary rate, minimum €43,500. Wanting the 30% ruling on top raises the practical minimum further, since the ruling's €48,013 salary threshold is tested against the taxable 70% portion, not the gross amount.

At what income does BV plus the 30% ruling become more tax-efficient than ZZP?

Advisory sites commonly cite €65,000 to €69,000 as the breakeven, but that figure assumes specific structuring choices: full profit extraction as salary and dividend, no BV running costs factored in, and no retained earnings. Real BV costs and how much profit someone chooses to retain versus pay out both shift the actual number.

What are the ongoing costs of running a BV compared to being a ZZP'er?

A BV requires notary incorporation, annual corporate tax (vennootschapsbelasting) filing, payroll administration for the DGA salary, and generally higher accounting fees than a ZZP'er's bookkeeping. These costs are real and ongoing, and a flat rule-of-thumb comparison usually leaves them out.

30% Ruling or ZZP? Why '€67k' Isn't the Number You Think It Is

The rule of thumb everyone quotes

Search “30% ruling ZZP” and you’ll land on the same number, repeated across enough advisory sites that it’s started to sound like settled fact: somewhere between €65,000 and €69,000 a year, a BV with the 30% ruling reportedly starts beating plain ZZP.

It isn’t wrong, exactly. It’s a shorthand for a comparison with several structural assumptions baked in that nobody states out loud, and the assumptions matter more than the number does.

Why ZZP’ers can’t just claim the ruling

The 30% ruling is an employee scheme. It lets an employer pay up to 30% of a qualifying employee’s salary tax-free, as compensation for the extra cost of working abroad. A ZZP’er, by definition, isn’t an employee of anyone, so the ruling doesn’t apply directly, however high a freelance rate you charge.

The route in is incorporating a BV (a Dutch private limited company) and becoming its DGA: director-grootaandeelhouder, or director-major shareholder. As DGA, you’re technically an employee of your own company, drawing a salary, and that salary can carry the 30% ruling if it clears the ruling’s thresholds.

For 2026, those thresholds are a taxable salary of at least €48,013 a year (€36,497 if you’re under 30 with a qualifying master’s degree), capped at €262,000. The ruling runs for 5 years from approval. One thing worth knowing if you’re timing this: rulings that started before 2024 keep the full 30% for their whole term, while rulings from 2024 onward step down to 27% from 1 January 2027.

The salary math nobody shows

Here’s the part that the “€65k–69k” shorthand tends to skip.

As a DGA, Dutch tax law requires you to pay yourself a gebruikelijkloon (customary salary) of at least €58,000 a year in 2026, regardless of the 30% ruling. That’s the baseline for having a BV at all.

But the 30% ruling’s €48,013 salary threshold is tested against the taxable portion of your salary, the 70% that’s left after the tax-free 30% is set aside, not your gross pay. To have €48,013 taxable and claim the full 30% on top, your gross DGA salary needs to work out to roughly:

€48,013 ÷ 0.70 ≈ €68,590

That’s your real practical floor if you want both gebruikelijkloon compliance and the ruling, and it’s meaningfully higher than the €58,000 figure most people first encounter. Below that gross salary, you either don’t qualify for the ruling, or you’re not meeting the customary-salary requirement. Neither advisory-site shorthand mentions both constraints at once.

What the breakeven figure leaves out

Once the salary is set, the rest of a BV’s profit is taxed differently from a ZZP’er’s. Corporate tax (vennootschapsbelasting) runs 19% up to €200,000 in profit and 25.8% above that. Money you then pay out to yourself as a dividend is taxed again, in Box 2, at 24.5% on the first €68,843 per person and 31% above (fiscal partners can split this, doubling the low-rate room to €137,686 combined).

That two-layer structure is where the tax advantage at higher incomes actually comes from, and it’s also where the commonly-quoted breakeven number gets soft. A few things it usually assumes without saying so:

Full extraction. The comparison typically assumes you pay out everything as salary and dividend. Profit you leave inside the BV defers the Box 2 tax, but it also isn’t personally spendable. Retaining more looks better on paper and worse in your bank account, and the “right” amount depends on what you’re saving for.
No BV running costs. Notary fees to incorporate, ongoing corporate tax filings, payroll administration for your own salary, and generally higher accounting fees than ZZP bookkeeping. These are real, recurring, and rarely built into the headline comparison.
A single clean structuring choice. In practice, DGAs make ongoing decisions about salary level, dividend timing, and retained earnings that shift the real number year to year. There isn’t one crossover point; there’s a range that depends on choices you make annually.

So what should you actually compare?

Not the €67k figure. Your own numbers, run properly, ideally with an accountant who can model your specific BV structure, since that side of the comparison involves corporate tax, payroll, and dividend planning that changes with your choices, not just your income.

What Peil can do is make sure the other side of that comparison, the ZZP path, isn’t the vague estimate it usually is in these write-ups. Peil computes your actual zelfstandigenaftrek, MKB-winstvrijstelling, Box 1 bands, and ZVW contribution from your real revenue and hours, not a rule-of-thumb percentage, feeding straight into your Net Effective Rate: what you’d actually keep per hour if you stayed ZZP, next to whatever a BV structure would actually cost and net you. You can run that ZZP side right now in the free Dutch freelance tax calculator — the full 2026 chain, no account needed. If you’re weighing a BV against staying ZZP, at least one side of that comparison should be a real number instead of a shortcut.

See your actual ZZP tax position, free to try.