Work out your Dutch income tax for 2026

Follow the five steps below to get your own indication. The outcome can never be less than zero. If you live abroad with Dutch income, your credits work differently. How that works is on avoiding double taxation. Self-employed readers need their profit and reliefs first, which this page leaves out. Self-employed? Start with income tax for the self-employed.

This page is the procedure, not the rulebook. It does not say why a bracket sits where it does. For the rates and brackets themselves, read Dutch tax rates and brackets.

Which figures do you need before you start?

Four figures decide the whole calculation. Write all four down before you touch a rate.

Step 1: Gather your four figures.

1. Your taxable Box 1 income. Your gross yearly income from work, pension or benefit, minus the deductions you may claim. The gross figure is on your jaaropgaaf, the annual statement your employer or your pension or benefit provider sends in January. If you have no jaaropgaaf yet, add up the gross amounts on your payslips.
2. The tax year. The one the income was earned in, not the one you file in.
3. Your age on 31 December of that year. At state pension age the first-bracket rate drops, because the AOW premium, the state pension contribution, falls away.¹ If you reach that age during the year, the month you reach it decides your first-bracket rate.
4. Your arbeidsinkomen. That is your income from work. The labour credit runs on it rather than on your total.³

The worked example below follows Aditi, who earned €55,000 in 2026.

How do you work out the tax on your income?

You tax each slice at its own rate, then add the slices. A higher rate only touches the part above a bracket edge. It never applies to your whole income.

Step 2: Apply the brackets to your income. The table below carries the 2026 brackets. Tax the first slice at the first rate and the next slice at the second rate. The third rate applies to income above the second edge. Then add the amounts.

The first bracket rate collects income tax and premie volksverzekeringen at once.¹ You pay one figure and there is nothing to add. The bracket edges themselves move each year, and tax brackets and rates tracks them.

How do the tax credits change your result?

Both credits come off your tax, not off your income. A credit of €1,000 lowers your bill by €1,000, until the bill reaches zero. At a high income both of them fall to nothing.

Step 3: Take off the general tax credit. Everyone who pays Box 1 tax gets it. It runs on your verzamelinkomen and it is gone from €78,427.²

Step 4: Take off the labour credit. This one only comes with income from work. It climbs with your arbeidsinkomen to a maximum and then tapers back to nothing.³ These are the two credits almost everyone gets. If you are entitled to another one, your own figure comes out too high.

The two tables below give both credits for the 2026 tax year.

A worked example, from salary to bill

Take Aditi, who earned €55,000 in 2026 and is under state pension age. Every line below uses the tables above. Her salary is her only income and she claims no deductions. So her taxable income, her verzamelinkomen and her arbeidsinkomen are all €55,000. Each line is rounded down to the whole euro.

1. First slice. She pays 35.75% on the first €38,883, which is €13,900.
2. Second slice. €55,000 minus €38,883 is €16,117. She pays 37.56% on that, which is €6,053.
3. Tax before credits. €13,900 plus €6,053 is €19,953.
4. General tax credit. €55,000 minus €29,736 is €25,264. 6.398% of that is €1,616.39, so €3,115 minus €1,616.39 is €1,498.61. Rounded down that is €1,498.
5. Labour credit. €55,000 minus €45,592 is €9,408. 6.510% of that is €612.46, so €5,685 minus €612.46 is €5,072.54. Rounded down that is €5,072.
6. Both credits. €1,498 plus €5,072 is €6,570.
7. Tax after credits. €19,953 minus €6,570 is €13,383.

This is an indication, not a final calculation. The Belastingdienst rounds some steps its own way, so your assessment can land a euro or two apart.

What moves your result up or down?

Five situations change the number you just worked out. Each one is its own calculation and each has its own page.

Step 5: Check the five situations below.

1. The 30% ruling. Part of your pay reaches you as a tax-free allowance, so the brackets run on a smaller figure. The Belastingdienst now calls it the expatregeling.⁵ Read the 30% ruling.
2. Your own home. Mortgage interest lowers your Box 1 income and the eigenwoningforfait, the notional rental value, raises it. Read mortgage interest deduction.
3. Savings and investments. Wealth above the tax-free amount belongs in Box 3, which has its own rate and its own timing. Box 3 income also raises your verzamelinkomen, so your general tax credit gets smaller. Read assets and Box 3.
4. Income from abroad. A foreign salary, pension or property decides which country taxes what. Read avoiding double taxation.
5. Your first or last year here. A part year in the Netherlands changes both credits, and your return that year is an M form. Read the M form.

What to do with your number

Set it beside what you have already paid. Your jaaropgaaf shows the loonheffing, the wage tax your employer withheld across the year. If your own figure is the lower of the two, you paid too much. That holds only when none of the five situations above applies to you. It also assumes no Box 2 income and no entrepreneur relief. Aditi sets her €13,383 beside the loonheffing on her own jaaropgaaf and sees the difference.

Then do three things. Check the tax year on each table you used. Check whether one of the five situations above applies to you. Keep your workings, because the Belastingdienst asks for your inputs and not for your outcome. If the year is not over yet, end-of-year tax tips lists what you can still change.