Dutch income tax return for self-employed creatives

Basics

What the Dutch income tax return covers for creatives

The income tax return covers your income for the calendar year. For a freelancer the main part is profit from business (winst uit onderneming): your turnover minus business costs. Next to that come other forms of income, such as salary from a job, and certain personal items like your home. The return is usually due by 1 May of the following year. An extension can be requested, and an accountant can often arrange more time through a deferral scheme.

The provisional tax assessment (voorlopige aanslag)

Before the final assessment, the Belastingdienst may send a voorlopige aanslag, a provisional assessment, based on an estimate of your income. Adjusting that estimate during the year spreads the payments and avoids a large bill later.

Deductions

Entrepreneur tax deductions and thresholds for 2026

Several deductions lower the profit on which you pay tax. These are the figures for 2026:

Which tax deductions require the hours criterion

The self-employed deduction and the starters deduction require that you meet the hours criterion. The SME profit exemption applies to every entrepreneur for income tax, even without meeting the hours criterion.

Hours

The 1,225 hour criterion and your tax return as a creative

The urencriterium asks whether you spent at least 1,225 hours in the calendar year on your business. That is about 24 hours a week. For creatives it is important to know that the hours do not only count when a client pays you. Time spent on acquisition, administration, developing a portfolio, rehearsing or preparing an exhibition also counts, as long as it is for the business. Keeping a simple log helps if the Belastingdienst ever asks.

Teaching or hospitality jobs and the hours criterion

Performers and musicians who also work in education or hospitality need to watch this criterion closely. The page for an accountant for actors and dancers covers combining a job with freelance work.

Royalties

Royalties, rights payments and irregular income in your tax return

Buma/Stemra payments for composers and lyricists and Sena payments for performing artists usually carry no VAT, but they count as profit for income tax. The same goes for licence fees on photos and illustrations and for advances on books. Because these amounts often arrive long after the work was done, they can push one year much higher than another. Michiel looks at the timing and the treatment of each stream. Musicians can read more on the page for an accountant for composers and musicians, and filmmakers working on long productions on the page for an accountant for filmmakers in Amsterdam.

Moving

Moved to the Netherlands? The migration year tax return

In the year you move to or leave the Netherlands, your income tax return usually looks different from a normal year. The Belastingdienst uses a separate return for this migration year, often called the M form (M-biljet), with extra questions about the part of the year before or after you lived here. Michiel can explain in English what this means for your freelance profit and make sure your business income is reported correctly.

You may also have heard of the 30% ruling. That is a scheme for certain employees recruited from abroad, applied for through an employer. Finance People cannot arrange it and does not promise it, and it is generally not relevant to income from your own freelance business.

Process

How Michiel prepares your income tax return

From closed books to a filed tax return

1. Your bookkeeping for the year is closed and the profit is calculated.
2. Michiel asks for your private details, such as other income and your housing situation.
3. He checks whether you meet the hours criterion and which deductions apply.
4. He prepares the return and explains the outcome to you in plain language.
5. After your approval, he files the return with the Belastingdienst.

Where the profit figure in your return comes from

The profit figure comes from the annual accounts for creative businesses, which in turn rest on year-round bookkeeping for freelancers.

Combined

A salaried job and freelance creative work in one tax return

Many creatives combine freelance work with a salaried job, for example teaching, working in a museum or part-time work at an agency. Both types of income end up in the same income tax return. Your employer already withholds tax on your salary, while tax on your freelance profit is settled through the return or the provisional assessment. The hours you spend on the job do not count towards the hours criterion, which is why some creatives with a large part-time job do not qualify for the self-employed deduction. Michiel shows you where you stand before the year is over, so there are no surprises.

Waitlist

Your income tax return from 2027

Michiel Terwindt has worked in finance since 1999 and has prepared income tax returns for creatives through Finance People since 2011; read more on Michiel Terwindt, accountant for creatives. The practice is full for 2026. If you want him to handle your return from 2027, sign up for the 2027 waitlist without obligation.