Knowledge base for freelancers

Short articles on your bookkeeping, your VAT return and your income tax. Every rule links to its official source.

VAT

• Filing your VAT return, step by step

  How to file your quarterly VAT return as a freelancer: which figures you need, where to enter them and when you must pay.

• VAT on bank charges and insurance

  Why is there no VAT on your bank charges and business insurance? Explains the exemption for financial services and insurance.

• Correcting VAT and suppletie: the €1,000 rule

  An error in a submitted VAT return? Up to €1,000 you fix it in the next return; above that you send a correction (suppletie).

• The boxes of the VAT return explained (1a to 5b)

  What goes in box 1a, 1b, 1e, 2a, 3b, 4a, 4b and 5b? An overview of the boxes a freelancer uses most often.

• Reverse-charged VAT: box 2a, 4a and 4b

  When is VAT reverse-charged to you, and where does it go in the return? Covers reverse charge within the Netherlands, from the EU and from outside the EU.

• Services to clients outside the EU

  You supply a service to a business outside the EU, for example in the United Kingdom. Do you charge VAT, and does it go in your return?

• Hospitality and mixed costs

  A business lunch or a drink with a client? The VAT is not deductible, and income tax follows the rules for mixed costs.

Costs and assets

• Depreciating business assets

  How do you depreciate a laptop, car or machine? About purchase cost, residual value, useful life and the maximum of 20% per year.

• Disinvestment and selling a business asset

  You sell your old laptop or company car. What does that mean for your profit, the KIA and VAT?

• KIA (small-scale investment deduction)

  Do you invest between €2,901 and €398,236 in a year? You may get KIA: an extra deduction from your profit. How it works in 2026.

• Cost or investment? The €450 rule

  A laptop, a desk chair or a phone: when do you book it as a cost straight away, and when do you depreciate it? The €450 limit explained.

• Private use of business items

  You also use your phone, laptop or car privately. How much VAT can you deduct, and what counts towards your profit?

Bank and payments

• Importing bank statements (MT940 and CAMT.053)

  What are MT940 and CAMT.053, how do you download them from your bank, and why is importing better than typing?

• Payment provider fees (Stripe, Mollie)

  Your customers pay through a payment provider and you receive the amount minus fees. Here is how to book revenue, costs and VAT correctly.

• Private deposit and private withdrawal

  Money moving from your business account to your private account, or the other way. Why it is not a cost or revenue, and how to book it.

Income tax

• Self-employed deduction, starter's deduction and SME profit exemption

  The three big deductions for freelancers in income tax, with the 2026 amounts and the conditions.

• The urencriterium (hours criterion) of 1,225 hours a year

  For the self-employed deduction and the starter's deduction you must spend at least 1,225 hours a year on your business. Which hours count?

• The provisional assessment for income tax

  With a provisional assessment you pay income tax in monthly instalments, not in one go afterwards. How to request or change it.

Switching and keeping records

• Keeping your records: 7 years

  How long must you keep your records, what belongs in them, and can you store them digitally? The retention duty for freelancers.

• Switching from Boekhouden van ABN AMRO

  ABN AMRO is closing its bookkeeping package. Which data do you download, when, and how do you continue your records in another package?

This article is general information, not tax advice. If you are unsure about your situation, ask the Belastingdienst or an adviser.