Dutch income tax return for freelancers: from revenue to assessment

You file a VAT return every quarter, but once a year the real one arrives: income tax on your profit. That is where the bulk of your tax burden sits, and most of your deductions too. Here is how the calculation runs from your revenue to what you actually pay.

The deadline: 1 May

You file for the past calendar year and the return must be in before 1 May. You can request an extension, usually until 1 September, but note: an extension to file is not an extension to pay. The Tax Administration charges interest on tax you pay later.

From revenue to taxable income

The return is one calculation in five steps. The figures below are for tax year 2026.

Step 1: your revenue. Everything you invoiced, excluding VAT. VAT is not revenue; it runs through your VAT return.

Step 2: subtract your costs. All business costs, also excluding VAT. Assets above 450 euros do not come off at once but through depreciation over several years. Business kilometres in your private car count at 0.23 euros each. What remains is your profit from business.

Step 3: the entrepreneur deduction. If you meet the 1,225-hour criterion, the self-employed deduction of 1,200 euros comes off your profit. As a starter you may add 2,123 euros of starter deduction on top, in at most three of your first five years.

Step 4: the SME profit exemption. Of what is left, 12.7 percent is exempt. Nothing to arrange and no hours criterion; the return applies it automatically.

Step 5: that is your taxable income. The tax in steps 6 and 7 is calculated on this.

The 2026 brackets

On your taxable income from work and home you pay (below state pension age):

• 35.70 percent up to 38,883 euros
• 37.56 percent from 38,883 to 79,137 euros
• 49.50 percent above that

Note that these are brackets: the highest rate applies only to the part of your income above the threshold, not to the whole amount.

Tax credits come off again

Two credits come off the calculated tax. The general tax credit is at most 3,115 euros and tapers to zero from around 29,700 euros of income. The labour tax credit rises to a maximum of 5,685 euros around 45,600 euros of income and falls again above that.

That taper is why one extra euro of profit often costs you more than the bracket rate suggests: you pay the rate and lose a slice of credit.

Then the healthcare contribution

Besides income tax, the self-employed pay the income-dependent healthcare contribution (Zvw): 4.85 percent of your taxable profit, up to a base of 79,409 euros. It arrives as a separate assessment and is often forgotten when setting money aside.

The provisional assessment

Most freelancers pay a provisional assessment in monthly instalments during the year. That is an estimate; after your return the final assessment follows and the difference is settled.

Estimate too low and you get an additional assessment plus interest after filing. Estimate too high and you have advanced money interest-free for a year. If your year turns out very differently than expected, adjust your provisional assessment during the year; that can be done online at any time.

How much should you set aside?

A safe rule of thumb for a starting freelancer is a third of your profit for income tax and the healthcare contribution combined, in a separate account. Reserve VAT apart from that: it was never your money.

For a more precise figure, run it through the net income calculator. It applies the self-employed deduction, starter deduction, SME profit exemption, the brackets and the tapering credits, and shows what you keep net per month and what to reserve monthly.

Four common mistakes

• Not tracking hours. Without plausible hour records there is no self-employed deduction, which is 1,200 euros of deduction gone.
• Mixing up VAT and profit. Always calculate with amounts excluding VAT, or you overstate your profit by 21 percent.
• Booking assets as costs. A 1,200 euro laptop spreads over several years, not one.
• Forgetting the healthcare contribution. It comes separately, on top of income tax.

This is an outline, not tax advice. If you are unsure about your own situation, for instance with a company car or a fiscal partner, run it past an accountant once.

In Finq your revenue, costs and depreciation sit together all year, and the reports show your profit per year. That makes the return a matter of copying numbers instead of reconstructing them.