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Zzp’er (freelancer without staff): start in the Netherlands

This guide is for newcomers who intend to work for themselves in the Netherlands. It explains registration, agreements with clients, btw (VAT, value-added tax), income tax, and what protection exists if the work ends.

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Confirm your right to work before you register a business

First confirm that your residence status permits self-employment. If what you do satisfies the business criteria, pick a legal form and register with KVK. The registration fee is €85.15 in 2026. Being registered with KVK and having a tax status are two separate matters. Settle the work and payment terms with your client, and then put money aside for tax, insurance and pension.

This guide is intended for newcomers who are starting a business in the Netherlands.

Are you allowed to work as a freelancer?

What applies if you hold citizenship of the EU (European Union), the EEA (European Economic Area) or Switzerland?

Citizens of the EU, the EEA and Switzerland may work as self-employed people without needing a work permit.

What applies if you come from a different country?

If you come from another country, look at your residence card before you accept any work. It has to permit self-employment or unrestricted work; otherwise you require a separate residence permit for self-employed people. Your client must also verify that your residence permission allows the work. The endorsement ‘Arbeid is vrij toegestaan. TWV niet vereist’ translates as ‘Work is freely permitted. TWV (work permit) is not required’. The work-rights guide describes the various card endorsements. IND (Immigration and Naturalisation Service) describes the route for the dedicated permit.

For applicants with Turkish nationality, the usual points system is not used for a self-employed residence-permit application. Even so, your business must serve an essential Dutch economic interest. RVO (Rijksdienst voor Ondernemend Nederland, Netherlands Enterprise Agency) evaluates this by looking at your business plan. Look at the IND rules for Turkish entrepreneurs before you prepare your application.

What applies if you are a refugee from Ukraine?

A distinct rule covers Ukrainian refugees who work as freelancers. If you do not hold a self-employed residence permit, your client has to get a TWV. Registering with KVK provides a business number; it does not provide work rights. Your client must also check your status. If the work counts legally as employment, rules for employee permits may apply.

How do you register a business?

Before you register, review KVK's business criteria. Zzp stands for ‘zelfstandige zonder personeel’ (self-employed person without staff). Zzp and freelance describe the way you work, not a legal form. KVK examines whether you provide goods or services independently. It examines whether you are paid commercially. It also examines whether you work regularly for people beyond family or friends. In addition, it asks about clients, competition, investment, risk and how freely you can organise your work.

A single side job might not meet KVK's business criteria. Even then, the income may still be taxable, and VAT rules may still apply.

Most people starting out choose an eenmanszaak (sole proprietorship). The registration steps below apply to that legal form.

For an eenmanszaak, there is no UBO (ultimate beneficial owner) registration duty.

An eenmanszaak may carry on several activities, use several trade names and have employees. You stay personally liable for its debts and claims. A bv (private limited company) has its own legal rights and duties, plus more formalities. Personal liability can still arise, for instance because of improper management or a personal guarantee. Compare risk, expected profit and costs when you choose your legal form.

You can register from 1 week before your start date until no later than 1 week after it. You may attend the identity check as early as 3 months before you start. If you attend early, KVK makes the registration effective from 1 week before your start date.

Carry out these steps in the following order:

  1. Use DigiD (digital government login) to prepare the KVK form.
  2. Make an appointment at a KVK office.
  3. Go to the appointment with valid identification and the address documents that KVK asks for.
  4. Pay the one-time registration fee of €85.15 in 2026. You can deduct this fee as a business cost.

To fill in the form, you need a BSN (citizen service number), a trade name and a description of your activities. As a rule, you need a Dutch visiting address. If that address is not your home address, bring a lease, a purchase contract or signed permission to use it. Someone living in a border region may use a foreign address if they can prove regular business activity in the Netherlands.

What occurs after registration?

KVK passes your details to the Belastingdienst (Tax Administration). That office assesses your VAT status within 10 working days. If it registers you for VAT, it sends two numbers by post: a btw-id (VAT identification number) and an omzetbelastingnummer (turnover-tax number). Write down your KVK number and keep the tax letters.

Put the btw-id on invoices and on public business communications. Use the omzetbelastingnummer only when dealing with the Belastingdienst.

Your VAT status and your status as an entrepreneur for income tax are assessed separately.

Put tax money aside after every payment

Keep the VAT you collect apart from the money you can spend. Also set aside money for income tax and the Zvw (Health Insurance Act) contribution. A provisional assessment can spread payments over the year. It can help you avoid having to pay the final tax for year 1 at the same time as the advance for year 2.

What should you arrange with your client?

Before you start, agree on the work, the price and the payment. A quote or assignment contract should reflect how you really work. When a platform or intermediary is involved, find out who contracts with you. Check who accepts the work. Check who pays you. Check who directs the daily work. Different parties may have different roles. Using an intermediary does not remove the risk concerning employment status.

Your agreement should include all of these points:

  • State the parties, the work, what you will deliver, how the client will accept it, and the start and end dates. Define what counts as extra work.
  • State the hourly rate or fixed price, the expenses, and whether prices include VAT. Set the invoice schedule and the payment term.
  • State who owns the work you create. Cover confidentiality, personal-data duties, and who provides equipment or access.
  • Set limits on liability, required insurance, and rights to cancel or terminate. Agree how disputes will be resolved and which country’s law applies.
  • Only explain independence, substitution, and business risk in situations where they actually arise. What the contract says does not take precedence over how the work is done day to day.

Using general terms is not mandatory. When you do use them, provide the client with a copy they can read and keep before they agree. Simply filing those terms with KVK or with a court is not enough on its own.

When Dutch B2B (business-to-business) work has no agreed payment term, 30 days applies. If you agree a term, it is usually no more than 60 days. A term longer than that requires a justification showing neither side is disadvantaged. A large company must settle with an SME (small or medium-sized enterprise) or a self-employed supplier within 30 days. Once the deadline passes, statutory commercial interest and a collection charge of at least €40 may apply. Collections from consumers follow different notice rules.

What are the steps for charging, invoicing, filing and paying VAT?

For 2026, the standard Dutch VAT rate is 21%. The 9% rate and exemptions are for listed goods or services that qualify. Exemption conditions exist for healthcare and education. Check if your service satisfies those conditions.

How VAT applies to foreign work depends on both the service and the client. For many services supplied to an EU business, the client accounts for VAT by reverse charging. Check the client’s VAT number, and show both VAT IDs plus ‘btw verlegd’ (VAT reverse-charged) on the invoice. Normally, you also report that service in an ICP (intra-Community transactions) statement.

Dutch VAT usually applies to services provided to foreign private customers. Exceptions exist for digital, property, event and other services. Before sending an invoice, use Belastingdienst VAT tool for international services to check the client’s country and the type of service.

Which details are required on your invoice?

A complete invoice usually must contain every detail listed below:

  • Your legal name, or a trade name registered together with your address and town. Include your address, btw-id and, when registered, KVK number. Also add the client’s name and address.
  • An invoice date and a unique invoice number in sequence.
  • A clear description of the service and its quantity or extent, along with the supply date or the date of any advance payment.
  • The net amount and, if relevant, the unit price, the VAT rate and the VAT amount. For supplies with different VAT rates, list separate net amounts. For exempt or reverse-charged work, use the wording that is required.
  • The client’s VAT ID when an EU business transaction requires it.

Also display the total, and include the agreed payment term and bank details so the client can make payment. Other invoice rules may apply, such as for simplified invoices or foreign transactions.

At what point must you invoice and submit VAT returns?

Send the invoice no later than the 15th day of the month following the supply. With the factuurstelsel (invoice accounting system), the invoice date generally determines the VAT period, even when the client has not paid. If you invoice after the deadline, report the VAT in the period when the invoice should have been issued. With the kasstelsel (cash accounting system), VAT is tied to payments you receive. Check which system applies to your business.

File through Mijn Belastingdienst Zakelijk (business tax portal) for the period stated in your tax letter, which is usually quarterly. If your business is established in the Netherlands, the monthly and quarterly returns and payments are due by the last day of the following month. The annual return for 2026 is due by 31 March 2027. Confirm the deadline assigned to you.

When you are invited to file, submit a nil return even if you had no turnover. After your return, the Belastingdienst does not send a payment request. Pay by the deadline using the payment reference. Keep filing any requested returns until the portal or a letter states that the obligation has ended.

KOR (small-business VAT scheme): are you eligible to use it?

For 2026, the KOR is optional for a Dutch-established VAT entrepreneur. Your relevant turnover must not exceed €20,000 in both the calendar year you apply and the previous calendar year. The Belastingdienst KOR conditions explain which turnover counts.

These steps are required to join the KOR:

  1. Wait until you have both VAT numbers.
  2. Submit your application in Mijn Belastingdienst Zakelijk a minimum of 4 weeks before the intended start date.
  3. Continue submitting returns until the confirmation letter states the start date.

Your participation cannot begin before the next quarter or return period.

With the KOR, you generally do not charge VAT and do not submit regular VAT returns. VAT on purchases cannot be deducted. You might have to adjust VAT that you deducted earlier on investments.

Regular VAT rules continue to apply when you sell land or buildings used in your business, or rights over them. They also apply to new or nearly new means of transport supplied to another EU country. In some cases, you may also need to file an occasional VAT return. Check the Belastingdienst occasional VAT return guidance. If a return is required, ask your tax office in writing for it yourself after the relevant quarter.

If one transaction pushes annual turnover above €20,000, VAT applies to the entire transaction. You must leave the KOR immediately. If you want to leave voluntarily, apply a minimum of 4 weeks before the return period in which you wish to exit begins. Once you leave, you cannot rejoin for the remainder of that calendar year or during the following calendar year.

How does tax apply to income from self-employment?

In an eenmanszaak, profit equals turnover minus business costs that are allowable. Registering with KVK and having VAT status does not by itself make you an income-tax entrepreneur. The Belastingdienst looks at independence, continuity, expected profit, the size of the business, clients and business risk.

When your work is not employment and also not an income-tax business, report it as inkomsten uit overig werk (income from other activities). Costs connected with it may still be deductible. You cannot use entrepreneur deductions or the mkb-winstvrijstelling (small-business profit exemption).

You may deduct the business portion of an expense. Private spending cannot lower business profit. For costs that are mixed, such as telephone, travel and equipment, divide them between business and private use. A home workspace can be deducted only in limited situations. With a lasting asset, you may have to spread the deduction across several years. Recovering VAT is calculated separately from the income-tax deduction.

Profit from business or income from other activities may also lead to a separate Zvw assessment. For 2026, the contribution rate is 4.85%, and the maximum contribution income is €79,409. The tax return works out the base and takes other income into account. During the year, you can ask for provisional income-tax and Zvw assessments or change them.

The income-tax guide for newcomers explains box 1 (income from work and home) and returns for a migration year.

What tax deductions are available to you in 2026?

For 2026, deductions in euros lower profit first. The 12.7% mkb-winstvrijstelling applies to the profit that remains after entrepreneur deductions. Check the conditions for each relief in the table.

Wide tables can be scrolled sideways.

Relief2026 amountMain conditions
Zelfstandigenaftrek (self-employed deduction)€1,200Income-tax entrepreneur and the hours test. Half if you had reached AOW (state pension) age on 1 January 2026. Unused eligible amounts can carry forward for up to 9 years.
Startersaftrek (starter deduction)€2,123 extraYou qualify for zelfstandigenaftrek. You were not an entrepreneur in at least 1 of the previous 5 years and used zelfstandigenaftrek at most twice then. Half if you had reached AOW age on 1 January 2026.
Mkb-winstvrijstelling12.7% of profit after entrepreneur deductionsIncome-tax entrepreneur. Applied automatically, with no hours test. In a loss year it also reduces the tax loss.

As a rule, the zelfstandigenaftrek cannot exceed your profit before entrepreneur deductions. That cap is lifted when you are eligible for startersaftrek. Any unused portion may be carried forward for 9 years, but it can only be set against profit that exceeds the zelfstandigenaftrek for that year.

Under the urencriterium, or hours test, you must spend at least 1,225 hours on business in the calendar year. If you begin partway through the year, the threshold stays the same. Hours spent on genuine, documented administration, acquiring clients and developing products may be included. Maintain a dated record of your hours that shows what you did.

Usually, over half of all your working time has to be devoted to the business. This second condition is not applied if, during at least 1 of the preceding 5 years, you were not an entrepreneur.

For 2026, the tax advantage from entrepreneur deductions and the mkb-winstvrijstelling is limited to a rate of 37.56%.

What effect do the deductions have on your taxable profit?

Example: in 2026, a qualifying starter who is below AOW age has €40,000 in profit before entrepreneur deductions. After subtracting €1,200 for zelfstandigenaftrek and €2,123 for startersaftrek, €36,677 remains. The mkb-winstvrijstelling of 12.7% comes to about €4,658. This leaves taxable profit of about €32,019. The deductions lower taxable profit by roughly €7,981. They do not produce a tax saving of that same amount. The tax you actually owe depends on rates, credits and other income.

How can you check whether false self-employment applies?

Schijnzelfstandigheid, or false self-employment, occurs when work that is legally employment is given the label of a contractor arrangement. The Wet DBA (Employment Relationships Deregulation Act) deals with the responsibilities of both the client and the contractor. The assessment looks at all the circumstances as a whole.

All of the following factors are taken into account in the assessment:

  • What the work involves and how long it lasts, plus who decides how and when you perform it.
  • How your work is positioned within the client’s organisation, and whether you are required to carry it out personally.
  • The manner in which the agreement was made, the way pay is determined and paid, and what you earn.
  • The business risk you bear and how you act as an entrepreneur beyond this particular assignment.

The outcome does not depend on any one factor by itself. A high rate, multiple clients, a bv or a substitution clause on its own cannot prove self-employment. When a platform or intermediary is involved, look at who directs the work, including the end client. Determine which party is your legal client.

Normal enforcement by the Belastingdienst started again on 1 January 2025. As a rule, corrections do not go back before that date. If conduct is malicious or instructions are ignored, corrections may cover earlier periods, generally up to 5 years back. In 2026, the Belastingdienst may impose culpability fines for deliberate or grossly negligent breaches. It states that it will not impose default fines in 2026.

Since 6 September 2024, the Belastingdienst has not assessed any new model agreements. Agreements that were approved and valid on that date can still be used until 31 December 2029, even if they list an earlier expiry date. The work actually performed must correspond to the agreement.

The proposed Zelfstandigenwet (Self-Employment Act) has not yet taken effect. A separate law introducing a legal presumption of employment for low hourly rates has been adopted. It enters into force on 31 December 2026.

Make the contract reflect the actual work

The government employment-status choice aid provides an indication only and does not offer legal certainty. Go over the facts with your client and retain evidence. If the work amounts to employment, either agree an employment contract or alter how the assignment is carried out.

When your client controls your work within its organisation and you bear little business risk, examine whether the work is employment. Talk about a clear result, the freedom to determine how and when you work, and genuine business risk. Go through all the facts once more with your client.

What risks do you need to insure against?

Income from freelancing does not automatically include employee insurance or pension coverage. Before you compare your rate with an employee’s gross hourly pay, build the cost of coverage into that rate. Review each risk listed below.

  • Sickness and disability: compare a private AOV (disability insurance) with voluntary sickness and WIA (long-term work-disability) cover obtained through UWV (Employee Insurance Agency).
  • Liability: business liability insurance covers injury or damage to property. Professional indemnity insurance covers financial loss caused by a professional error. Your profession, sector or client may require coverage.
  • Pregnancy: self-employed people who meet the conditions can claim ZEZ (self-employed maternity benefit).
  • Low income: ask your gemeente (municipality) if you are eligible for Bbz (support for self-employed people). The municipality assesses both your circumstances and your business.
  • Unemployment: freelance assignments usually do not build up WW (unemployment benefit) rights. Maintain an emergency reserve and review your termination and notice terms.
  • Pension: AOW generally accrues at 2% for every insured year. A newcomer may therefore get less than a full pension. A sector pension scheme may be compulsory. If not, consider an annuity or another private arrangement.

AOV is usually voluntary. UWV coverage depends on the insurance you had before. As a rule, you must apply within 13 weeks after your compulsory employee insurance ends.

The standard UWV route requires you to have had compulsory sickness and disability cover in the year before becoming self-employed, with no break longer than 60 days. If you stay partly employed, you may apply at any time, provided you have at least 3 years of prior compulsory cover. When you leave or reduce a job, check with UWV which route applies to you.

Compulsory basic disability insurance remains a proposal. The Wet BAZ (Basic Disability Insurance for Self-Employed People Act) bill was sent to the Tweede Kamer (House of Representatives) on 23 March 2026. Its rules and start date have not been settled. While the proposal is being considered, keep the cover you need.

Freelancing does not remove your obligation to hold Dutch basic health insurance when Dutch insurance rules apply to you. The health-insurance guide explains how to check that obligation, including cross-border situations.

How should you organise records, banking and deadlines?

Keep your business records, banking and deadlines in order:

  • Retain invoices, contracts, bank records and the underlying business records for at least 7 years. Records relating to immovable property and records under the OSS (one-stop shop) Union VAT scheme must be kept for 10 years. Digital records should stay digital, together with the software required to read and search them.
  • Review your bank’s account terms. An eenmanszaak is not legally required to use a business bank account, but a bank may forbid business use of a personal account. Keeping banking separate helps you monitor VAT, costs and unpaid invoices.
  • Keep track of VAT periods, ICP statements where applicable, annual income tax, provisional assessments and Zvw. Also monitor insurance renewals and contract end dates. Software or an adviser is optional; business fees may be deductible.

How do you wind up the business?

Close an eenmanszaak in this sequence:

  1. Bring assignments to completion or hand them over.
  2. Collect unpaid invoices.
  3. Settle debts.
  4. Make a decision about the future of stock and assets.
  5. Review any notice periods, unsettled claims, and insurance cover for claims that may come later.
  6. Bring contracts and insurance to an end or make changes to them.
  7. Deregister with KVK.

Once you deregister, KVK passes that information to the Belastingdienst. You must keep submitting each return that Mijn Belastingdienst Zakelijk asks you to file. Await the letter regarding the final VAT return. VAT may be owed on the current value of assets if those assets had VAT deducted earlier and are now put to private use.

In the income-tax return for the year the business closes, report the closure results, including any stakingswinst (profit from ending a business).

Your records must be kept for the whole retention period.

Find out from your bank how long you can keep the account open after deregistration. Before access ends, download the statements and save the last records.

What if a problem arises?

What if your client supervises you like an employee?

Work that functions as employment cannot be corrected by contract clauses. Look at who controls the hours, methods, location, and leave. Write down how the work fits within a team. Write down who carries the risk of rework and non-payment. Verify whether substitution is genuine. Either change the actual arrangement jointly or move to employment. The employment-contracts guide sets out the employee protections that apply in that situation.

What if your client does not pay by the deadline?

Confirm that a valid invoice reached the legal client. Confirm whether they dispute acceptance of the work. Send a written reminder, keep delivery evidence, and act in line with your contract. When Dutch business debt is involved, statutory commercial interest and a collection charge of at least €40 may apply beginning the day after the deadline. If the debtor is a consumer, send a notice that states the collection costs. Let the 14-day payment period in that notice pass before charging those costs. Seek advice before escalating a claim that is disputed or cross-border.

What if all your first tax bills come at the same time?

Update your accounts and your estimate of profit. Set VAT aside in a separate reserve, and apply for provisional income-tax and Zvw assessments. Adjust the estimate whenever profit or other income changes. If you are unable to pay by the deadline, get in touch with the Belastingdienst before that deadline. The return must still be filed.

What if your permit prevents self-employment?

Before you accept or invoice the proposed work, you need the permission required for it. If you are a Ukrainian refugee with no self-employed residence permit, your client must get a TWV. Ask IND which route applies. Your residence-card endorsement cannot be overridden by a KVK number, a contract, or a platform account. Your client may need the employee-permit route if the work legally counts as employment.

Before your first invoice, ask the relevant authority or a qualified adviser about tax, permit, or employment-status questions.

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