In the Netherlands there are different ways to save for your pension. The easiest one is to get a job as an employee. For zzp-ers/entrepreneurs it's a different story, but there are opportunities.
My first advice would be: pay your debts!
As a zzp-er you have four possibilities to save for your pension:
The easiest way to save for old age is to put money in a savings account. You can always do this and you can use the money whenever you like. You can look for a better intrest rate for a longer period. And that is it.
Most entrepreneurs don’t like this idea because the return on investment is low and tax wise you lose more then you earn. That is partly true. In the Dutch system you can privately save up to €30.000 (in 2018) before you have to pay taxes. In 2020 this will be €50.000. So in 2018 a fiscal couple can have a total of €60.000 in a saving accounts without having to pay taxes.
Please note that if you have more assets you do have to pay taxes.
This is quite similar to putting money in a savings account. The difference is that these special blocked bank or stock accounts have some restrictions. If you choose the right restrictions you can get fiscal benefits from this system.
Brand New Day, ZZP-pensioen and Bright Pensioen are companies that have allready figured out for you, entrepreneur, how to fix this. These companies can organise your pension plan in such a way that you can enjoy both the benefits from the blocked account as from saving bij a "lijfrente" insurance.
The main reason to choose for a special blocked bank or stock account is that the money you save will always be your money, because it is registered on your name. The only objection I have at this moment is that the future estimate results are quite optimistic.
If you want to arrange this by yourself, just ask your bank for a “bankspaarproduct” with restrictions.
This looks quite similar to putting money in savings or special bank accounts. The difference is that a "lijfrente" is an insurance. So you pay a fee and after 20 or 30 years you can have an pension.
These insurances do not have a good reputation from the past. Sometimes if you die you can’t transfer the savings to family or relatives. Most of the time it is just to fix gaps between current pension plans and future pension wishes.
From a fiscal point of view a "lijfrente" gives the same result as putting money in a special blocked bank or stock account.
The ZZP-er/small business entrepreneur can use this way to save money of his profit in his company so he pays less taxes in the fiscal year. The DGA (Director & Main Shareholder) can’t start such pension plan anymore in a BV (Ltd.). In a year you make a certain amount of profit. Then you can save 9,8% of that amount of profit for FOR. It will become a part of the equity.
My advice is to really save this amount within your company. Otherwise it is a savings amount on paper and you have to pay taxes over this amount in the future. Or you have to explain to the tax office where the money went. In all cases you have to pay income tax.
Of course you can combine any or all of these regulations as a small business entrepreneur. It is an easy way of saving taxes and public insurances now and pay lower taxes (and no public insurances) later.
