If you run your Dutch business through a BV rather than as a sole proprietor, you pay corporate tax, vennootschapsbelasting, instead of personal income tax on your profit. The useful news for anyone budgeting or filing this year: the Dutch corporate tax rate 2026 is exactly the same as in 2025. No new bracket, no new percentage. Here are the figures, what the threshold actually means in practice, and a worked example with real numbers.
Dutch corporate tax rate 2026, at a glance
| 2026 | |
|---|---|
| Lower rate | 19% on profit up to €200,000 |
| Higher rate | 25.8% on profit above €200,000 |
| Compared to 2025 | Unchanged, same rates and same threshold |
| Innovation box (if applicable) | 9% on profit from qualifying innovation |
Why isn't the rate changing in 2026?
The rates and the €200,000 threshold have been fixed since 2023, and the 2026 tax plan doesn't touch them. A handful of smaller rules around corporate tax get minor tweaks this year, but what you pay per euro of profit stays exactly the same. Until parliament formally finishes approving this year's tax package later in the year there is, in theory, always a small chance something shifts, but nothing currently points to the rates themselves being touched. For planning purposes, you can safely work with 19% and 25.8% for the full year.
What the €200,000 threshold means for your BV
If you run a single BV, the threshold is straightforward: 19% on the first €200,000 of profit, 25.8% on everything above it. If you run several BVs grouped into a fiscal unity (fiscale eenheid), that €200,000 threshold applies once to the whole group, not separately to each company. If you hold a holding with two profitable operating companies, for example, they share that lower rate between them rather than each getting their own. For a growing group of BVs, that's often a good reason to review whether a fiscal unity still makes sense, something worth looking at case by case since it affects more than just corporate tax.
Worked example: corporate tax at two profit levels
Say your BV makes €120,000 profit. That stays entirely within the lower bracket, so you simply pay 19% on the full amount: €22,800 in corporate tax. Your effective rate works out to exactly 19%.
Say your BV makes €350,000 profit instead, you fall into both brackets. On the first €200,000 you pay 19%, that's €38,000. On the remaining €150,000 you pay 25.8%, that's €38,700. Together that's €76,700 in corporate tax on €350,000 of profit. Your effective rate lands around 21.9%, noticeably below the 25.8% headline rate, because that higher percentage only ever applies to the slice above the threshold, never to the whole profit.
What about the innovation box?
If part of your profit comes from qualifying innovation, for example a patent or R&D work covered by a Dutch R&D tax credit declaration (WBSO), that portion of your profit may qualify for the innovation box, taxed at 9% instead of 19% or 25.8%. This isn't applied automatically. You need to demonstrate which part of your profit is genuinely attributable to the innovation and substantiate that. Most freelancers and smaller SMEs running a BV never touch this, but for a company built on its own developed intellectual property it can make a real difference.
Corporate tax versus income tax: what changes if you switch
If you currently run a sole proprietorship and are weighing a move to a BV, you trade box 1 income tax, with rates up to 49.5%, for the corporate tax rates above. That is rarely the whole story: as a director and major shareholder (DGA) you are also required to pay yourself a market-rate salary, and any profit you take out as dividend gets taxed again under box 2. Whether a BV actually comes out ahead depends on your full picture, not the corporate tax rate alone. We worked through that comparison with real numbers in sole proprietorship or BV in the Netherlands, and what the mandatory director's salary means in practice in DGA customary salary 2026.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need to apply for the 19% lower rate myself? No, the Dutch tax authority applies it automatically based on your corporate tax return. You report your profit, and the brackets get calculated for you.
Does a fiscal unity really share the €200,000 threshold across all its companies? Yes. If you group several BVs into a fiscal unity, the threshold applies to the group as a whole. With multiple profitable BVs, that can push your effective rate higher than if each company were taxed separately.
When do I file and pay corporate tax? Standard practice is within five months of the end of your financial year. If your financial year matches the calendar year, that means a deadline of 1 June 2026 for financial year 2025. If you need more time, you can request an extension, similar to how personal income tax extensions work.
Will the corporate tax rate change again in the coming years? Not for 2026. Whether it stays the same beyond that depends on future government budgets, and nothing concrete is known about that yet.
New to setting up a company in the Netherlands?
At Sophy &Co. we help expat founders work through exactly these questions, corporate tax rates included, long before any paperwork gets filed, based on your actual numbers rather than a rule of thumb. Book a call and we'll walk you through what a BV would actually cost you in tax, no Dutch required, and connect you with trusted notaries, banks, and other expat founders who've been through the same process.
Between us our team speaks English, Dutch, Italian, Chinese, Spanish, Papiamento, German, and some French and Polish, so you can explain your situation in whatever language is easiest for you. We're a woman-led, diverse team of bookkeepers, both women and men, and proudly LGBTQIA-friendly.
Want to know what a BV would mean for your own numbers? Try our sole proprietorship or BV checker for a first indication, or work out your required director's salary with the director's salary checker. Take a look at our services and pricing, or get in touch for a no-obligation conversation about your BV and its corporate tax return.
For the official rates and the latest on the tax plan, see the Dutch Tax Administration's page on corporate tax and the Dutch government's page on the 2026 tax plan.