Take-home pay in Netherlands

The published rates are not income tax

If you read that the first Dutch bracket pays 35.75 %, you are reading a figure that mixes two different things. That percentage has social contributions inside it: 27.65 % of volksverzekeringen — AOW, Anw and Wlz — and only 8.10 % of actual income tax.

That is why the jump from the first bracket to the second is barely two points, from 35.75 % to 37.56 %, when in any other country a change of bracket is felt far more. What happens as you cross the contribution ceiling — 38,883 € of premie-inkomen — is that the 27.65 % disappears and tax appears in its place. It is not a new bracket: it is the same figure split differently.

This is exactly the kind of thing a flow diagram shows better than a payslip, and the reason the two parts are separated here instead of showing the aggregate percentage.

The credits are withdrawn, and that is real money

The Netherlands has two large tax credits: the algemene heffingskorting, which everyone gets, and the arbeidskorting, which working people get. Both are WITHDRAWN as your salary rises.

Between 45,592 € and 78,426 € you lose 6.51 cents of the first and 6.398 of the second for every extra euro you earn. Added to a nominal rate of 37.56 %, the REAL marginal rate in that band is close to 50 %.

That is the full explanation for why a pay rise disappoints so much in this country: half of the increase stays behind, and only part of that shows up as tax on the payslip. The rest is credit you have stopped receiving.

Where these figures come from

Every parameter comes from the Belastingdienst: the box 1 scale and the heffingskortingen from the 2026 provisional assessment table, and the volksverzekeringen premiums are AOW 17.90 %, Anw 0.10 % and Wlz 9.65 %, on a premie-inkomen of at most 38,883 €.

The figures describe someone below the AOW age, the Dutch state pension age. Above it the rates are lower, because AOW contributions stop.

What this calculator does not include

• The 30 % ruling for incoming workers, which exempts part of the salary from tax for a limited period. If it applies to you, you will pay considerably less than shown here.
• The inkomensafhankelijke combinatiekorting and the other child-linked credits, which depend on the children's ages and on whether the other parent works.
• The mortgage — hypotheekrenteaftrek — and the eigenwoningforfait, which shift the base for anyone who owns their home.
• The reduced rates for people who have reached AOW age.
• The Zvw: the nominal health insurance premium is paid by the worker, but directly to the insurer and not through payroll, so it lives in the spending basket rather than the tax breakdown.