For the self-employment deduction, you must meet the 1,255-hour criteria and not have reached the AOW-retirement age at the beginning of the calendar year.

The amount of the self-employment deduction in 2023 is €5.030. However, the tax advantage of the self-employment deduction is limited, calculated at a rate of 36.93%. The self-employment deduction cannot exceed the profit before the entrepreneur's deduction. This limitation on the self-employment deduction does not apply if you are eligible for the start-up deduction.

Offsetting the self-employment deduction

If your business' profit is too low to utilize the full amount of the self-employment deduction, the unused portion can be offset over the next 9 years. The not used portion of the self-employment deduction can be found on your Dutch tax form. It's important to know that your profit must be higher than the self-employment deduction in the years when you use the offset for the full self-employment deduction.

Start-up deduction

With the start-up deduction, you can get to an increased amount of €2.123 in addition to the regular self-employment deduction if the following two conditions are met:

1. In one or more of the previous 5 calendar years, you were not self-employment.
2. The self-employment deduction has not been applied more than 2 times during this period.

The self-employment deduction cannot exceed the profit before the self-employment deduction. This limitation does not apply if you can apply for the start-up deduction. If you are eligible for the start-up deduction, you are can get the full amount of the self-employment deduction.

AOW-retirement age at the beginning of the calendar year

If you have reached the AOW-retirement age at the beginning of the calendar year, you are eligible for 50% of the self-employment deduction that self-employment people have that have not yet reached the AOW retirement age. The same principle applies for the start-up deduction.