Income tax return for freelancers: steps and deadline

When do you file your income tax return?

You file a return for a whole calendar year. You file the return for 2026 in the spring of 2027. You can start from 1 March and it must be in before 1 May.

You apply for an extension in Mijn Belastingdienst. That is only possible if you received a return letter (aangiftebrief) from the Tax and Customs Administration (Belastingdienst). Within three weeks you get a confirmation. If you file together with your partner, each of you applies for an extension separately.

Note. If your return arrives on or after 1 May, even with an extension, you usually pay interest on tax owed (belastingrente) from 1 July on the amount you still have to pay. A provisional assessment avoids a large bill later.

How do you report profit from business in box 1?

If you are an entrepreneur for income tax, your profit is income from work and home: box 1. You file the return online. You can use Mijn Belastingdienst, return software or an adviser. In the same return you also fill in your private matters, such as your mortgage interest and your savings.

After your profit you subtract the deductions for entrepreneurs. The return software works them out from your profit and your hours:

• Self-employed deduction: €1,200 if you meet the hours criterion of 1,225 hours.
• Starter deduction: €2,123 extra in the first years of your business.
• SME profit exemption: 12.7% of the profit after the entrepreneur deduction, even without the hours criterion.

What do you need for your return?

• Your DigiD, to log in to Mijn Belastingdienst.
• Your profit and loss account: your turnover and your business costs for the whole year.
• Your balance sheet on 1 January and 31 December: what your business owns (stock, car, bank balance, debtors) and what it owes.
• Your depreciation on business assets. See depreciation on small investments.
• Your hours records, if you want the self-employed deduction (zelfstandigenaftrek).
• Your private withdrawals and private deposits.
• Your private details: home, mortgage, savings and investment accounts, gifts and healthcare costs.

Keep your records for 7 years. Also read keeping receipts.

What are private withdrawals and do they count?

A private withdrawal (prive-onttrekking) is money or something else you take out of your business for yourself. Think of the transfer to your private account, or a business laptop you also use at home. Private use of a business car counts as a withdrawal too.

Private withdrawals are not costs. So you may not subtract them from your profit. The other way round, private deposits are not turnover: money you move from your private account to your business account is not profit. So keep the two well apart. See separating business and private.

Example: profit, private withdrawals and balance sheet

Lotte is a copywriter. In 2026 she invoices €62,000 excluding VAT and has €9,500 in business costs. That year she moves €30,000 to her private account. Her business capital was €8,000 on 1 January.

Lotte reports €52,500.00 in profit. The €30,000 she moved to private does not lower her profit. You only see it back in the lower capital on her balance sheet. If the capital on 31 December does not match the sum, there is an error somewhere in the records.

How do you file the return step by step?

1. Close your books for the year. Check that all invoices, receipts and bank entries are booked.
2. Draw up your profit and loss account and your balance sheet at 31 December.
3. Add up your hours and see if you meet the hours criterion (urencriterium).
4. From 1 March log in to Mijn Belastingdienst and open the return. Some of your private details are already filled in. Check them.
5. Under profit from business (winst uit onderneming) enter your balance sheet, your profit and your hours.
6. Check the result and send the return before 1 May.
7. After that you get an assessment with the amount you pay or get back.