How Much Should You Reserve as a Freelancer in the Netherlands?

You hear it at every freelancer meetup and in every Facebook group: “Just set aside 30 to 40%, and you won’t get any surprises.” It’s well-meant advice. And it’s wrong. Not slightly wrong. Fundamentally wrong.

It’s wrong because it ignores the two things that determine everything: how much you earn and what your structural costs are. Two freelancers with the same revenue can need to set aside completely different amounts. And “reserving” isn’t one pot to begin with. It’s five.

This piece works it out for you. Three income profiles, real 2026 figures, and by the end you’ll know why the right percentage is an outcome of your own situation, not a rule of thumb you fill in beforehand.

Why “set aside 30%” doesn’t hold up

The 30% rule assumes reserving is only about tax, and that tax is a flat percentage of revenue. Neither is true.

In the Netherlands you don’t pay tax on your revenue, but on your profit, and a few substantial deductions come off first. The zelfstandigenaftrek (€1,200 in 2026), the MKB-winstvrijstelling (12.70%), and your tax credits push your tax bill down significantly, especially at lower incomes. That makes the effective tax rate on a low income much lower than 30%, and on a high income higher, since the progressive rates climb to 49.50% in the top band (above €78,426).

And tax is only one of five buckets. Reserving properly means five parts, not one flat percentage:

1. Tax reserve: income tax + ZVW healthcare contribution
2. Business buffer: for quiet months and unexpected expenses
3. Disability insurance (AOV) reserve: your income protection premium
4. Pension contribution: what you set aside for later
5. Income room: what’s left to actually live on

The 30% rule puts everything in bucket 1 and forgets the rest. Let’s do it properly.

The tax reserve: work it out yourself

This is where most of the misunderstanding lives. Your tax reserve isn’t a percentage of revenue. It’s the output of the tax chain. For 2026, that chain looks like this:

Revenue
− Business costs                 = Taxable profit
− Entrepreneur deduction (€1,200)
− MKB profit exemption (12.70%)  = Taxable income (Box 1)
→ Box 1 rates (35.75% / 37.56% / 49.50%)
− Tax credits (general credit, labour credit)
+ ZVW contribution (4.85%, up to a base of €79,409)
= What you actually pay

Note the order: it’s set by law and it determines how much you pay. The calculation behind your Net Effective Rate runs on exactly the same chain.

Below I work through three profiles. Tax amounts are rounded to the nearest hundred: this is about order of magnitude, not the cent.

Three profiles, three very different answers

For each profile I take a revenue figure, realistic business costs, and then the remaining buckets. Business costs, disability insurance premium, pension contribution and buffer are illustrative assumptions; adjust them to your own situation.

Profile 1 – €40,000 revenue (the starter / part-timer)

• Revenue: €40,000
• Business costs: €4,000
• Taxable profit: €36,000

After the entrepreneur deduction and MKB exemption, taxable income lands around €30,400. Because the general tax credit and labour tax credit are close to their maximum at this level, income tax after credits drops to roughly €2,300. Add the ZVW contribution of roughly €1,500 on top.

Tax reserve: ± €3,800 a year, about 9 to 10% of revenue.

That’s less than a third of what the 30% rule would have you set aside. Reserving 30% (€12,000) here strips out months of income that’s genuinely yours.

Then the rest:

Profile 2 – €70,000 revenue (the established full-timer)

• Revenue: €70,000
• Business costs: €8,000
• Taxable profit: €62,000

This is where it gets interesting. Part of taxable income (± €53,000 after deductions) now falls into the second band, and tax credits start phasing out. Income tax after credits comes to roughly €13,000, ZVW to roughly €2,600.

Tax reserve: ± €15,500 a year, about 22% of revenue.

At this profile, the real reserve (all four buckets combined, excluding income room) sits around 42% of revenue. For the tax bucket alone that’s 22%. This is the profile where the 30% rule comes closest of the three, but still misses, and for the wrong reason: it puts everything under “tax,” when almost half of what you’re actually setting aside is buffer, disability insurance and pension.

Profile 3 – €100,000 revenue (the high earner)

• Revenue: €100,000
• Business costs: €12,000
• Taxable profit: €88,000

Most of your income now sits in the second band (37.56%) and tax credits have nearly vanished; the top band (49.50%, above €78,426 taxable) is just barely out of reach at this profile. Income tax after credits comes to roughly €24,700, ZVW to roughly €3,700.

Tax reserve: ± €28,300 a year, about 28% of revenue.

Here the 30% rule would leave you under-reserved: tax alone is already 28% of revenue, before disability insurance, pension and buffer are added. The total to set aside here runs toward 48% of revenue.

What this tells you: the percentage is an outcome, not a rule

Line the three up and the pattern is obvious:

None of these three sit at “30 to 40%.” The starter reserves far less for tax than the rule of thumb says; the high earner far more. And the total (including buffer, disability insurance and pension) ranges from roughly 28% to nearly half of revenue.

The right percentage can’t be chosen in advance. It follows from your revenue, your costs, and the choices you make around disability insurance, pension and buffer. Work off one fixed number and you’ll structurally set aside the wrong amount, and you won’t find out until the assessment arrives, or the first quiet month hits.

Disability insurance and pension: two separate stories

One thing needs to be clear, because it’s the most common mistake. Never deduct your AOV premium from your profit.

For tax purposes, an AOV premium is not a business cost. It’s a personal deduction (“income provision expenses,” Art. 3.124 of the Dutch Income Tax Act) that comes off your taxable income after the MKB exemption. The same applies to pension via an annuity, within your annual allowance. That position in the chain isn’t a technicality: deduct it before the MKB exemption by mistake, and you lose 12.70% of the deduction’s value.

But for your reserve, the premium is exactly what it looks like: money that leaves your account every month. That’s a cash story, not a tax story. In your runway, the AOV premium counts as an expense, while your income room doesn’t subtract the premium a second time, since it’s already baked into your net figure.

Keep the two apart and you’ll understand why Peil treats disability insurance and pension in two different places: as a deduction in the tax calculation, and as a cash outflow in your buffer and runway.

From reserve to runway

Filling five buckets is half the story. The other half is: how long can I keep going if things slow down? That’s your runway: the number of months your buffer carries you without new revenue.

Your runway is your buffer divided by your monthly outgoings. And those outgoings do include your AOV premium and pension contribution as cash outflows, alongside your business overhead and personal expenses. A €7,000 buffer feels comfortable, until you divide it by a €3,500 monthly load and see it’s really two months.

What you do with this

The honest summary: there’s no good answer to “how much should I reserve” without plugging in your own revenue, costs and choices. The 30% rule is a guess that’s right for almost nobody.

What does hold up is the calculation. Run that five-way split yourself in the free tax reserve tool: tax reserve, business buffer, disability insurance reserve, pension contribution and income room, for your own revenue, no account required. Peil then splits your reserve the same way based on your actual numbers, and shows how many months of runway that gives you.

Enter your structural costs and see your runway live. Free to try.

Amounts in the examples are illustrative: fixed costs, AOV premium, pension contribution and personal expenses vary per person. Tax parameters are those for 2026. Always check your own numbers against your actual revenue, costs and deductions.