The Dutch side: two routes

  • Sole proprietorship: profit lands in box 1 with the entrepreneur package — self-employed deduction €1,200, starter deduction €2,123, SME profit exemption 12.7%. Healthcare contribution for the self-employed runs 4.85% (capped).
  • BV: the company pays corporate tax (19% to €200,000, 25.8% above); you draw the customary director salary (€58,000 benchmark in 2026) and dividends at box 2 rates (24.5% to €68,843, 31% above) at the moment you choose.

In the growth phase, a BV founder can agree a lower customary salary with the Dutch tax administration and borrow from the own BV (up to €500,000 stays outside box 2) to fund private life — a combination that saves roughly €18,000–€20,000 per year while profit compounds at 19%. Set it up with a written request early in the year: the smart DGA setup.

The US side: file, credit, relax

US citizens file annually on worldwide income. Two instruments keep the bill single: the foreign earned income exclusion shelters an indexed slice of salary, and the foreign tax credit offsets Dutch tax dollar-for-dollar on the rest — Dutch rates generally exceed US rates, so most DAFT founders owe the IRS little to zero. The bank-account report (FBAR) applies once foreign accounts exceed $10,000 in aggregate. Corporate owners add entity reporting: US reporting duties with a Dutch BV.

The treaty layer

The US–Netherlands tax treaty assigns each income type a home and caps withholding between the countries — the plain-language tour: the US–NL treaty guide. Dividends from your BV to you as a Dutch resident stay a purely Dutch affair in box 2: Dutch dividend tax 2026.

One calendar, two returns

Dutch income tax files by 1 May (extension available); the US return follows its own season with the automatic expat extension. A coordinated pair of advisors — one Dutch, one US — turns the two-system life into a routine of a few hours per year.

More on the tax side

All twenty-one guides sit together on the DAFT hub, grouped the way the route itself runs.