Provisional assessment (voorlopige aanslag): request and pay

What is a provisional assessment?

Normally you file your return in the spring for the year before. After that you get a final assessment and you pay everything at once. With a provisional assessment (voorlopige aanslag) you already pay part of it each month during the year itself. With your return the Tax and Customs Administration (Belastingdienst) sets those amounts off against the final assessment.

As an entrepreneur you also pay your own income-related healthcare contribution (inkomensafhankelijke bijdrage Zorgverzekeringswet, Zvw). You can get a provisional assessment for that too.

Why request a provisional assessment as a freelancer?

For an employee the employer holds back payroll tax each month. For you nobody does that. Without a provisional assessment the bill for 2026 only arrives in 2027. Then you must pay a large amount at once, while you are already building up tax for 2027 too.

• You spread the payment over the year, just like payroll tax.
• Each month you know what part of your turnover is really yours.
• If you started this year and expect a profit, the Tax and Customs Administration itself advises it.

The Tax and Customs Administration sometimes also sends a provisional assessment without being asked. That often happens after your first return as an entrepreneur. The amount is then based on your old figures. If that does not fit your profit now, change it.

How do you request a provisional assessment?

1. Estimate your profit for the whole year. Take your turnover so far, add the expected turnover for the rest of the year and subtract your costs.
2. Find your other details: your DigiD, your IBAN, an estimate of your savings and investments on 1 January, and the WOZ value and mortgage of your home.
3. Log in to Mijn Belastingdienst and choose to request or change your provisional assessment.
4. Enter your estimated profit and your other income and deductions. The software includes your entrepreneur deduction and SME profit exemption.
5. Send the request. Usually you hear back within four weeks, always within eight weeks.

If you apply together with your tax partner, each of you needs their own DigiD. To estimate your profit you can use the entrepreneur deduction calculator.

How do you change your provisional assessment?

If your profit or your private situation changes during the year, you can always change the provisional assessment. You do that in the same place in Mijn Belastingdienst. If your turnover grows faster than expected, raise it. That avoids an extra bill later. If you have less work, lower it, so you do not pay too much in advance.

How do you pay a provisional assessment per month?

A provisional assessment you receive in the year it covers may be paid in equal monthly instalments. The whole amount must be in by 31 December. The number of instalments depends on the date on the assessment: the later in the year, the fewer instalments. You pay the first instalment within a month after that date. You can also ask for direct debit.

Example: Bram is a handyman. He estimates he must pay €7,920 in income tax and healthcare contribution for 2026. His provisional assessment is dated 15 February 2026. After that date there are 10 whole months left in the year.

If his figures turn out right in the spring of 2027, the final assessment roughly cancels out against what he already paid. If he paid too little, he pays the difference. If he paid too much, he gets it back.

What about interest on tax owed?

Interest on tax owed (belastingrente) is interest the Tax and Customs Administration charges when an assessment cannot be fixed in time. For income tax you pay interest if your return arrives on or after 1 May, even if you have an extension. The interest runs from 1 July of the year after the tax year. You also pay interest if the Tax and Customs Administration must depart from your return.

That interest is charged on the amount you still have to pay. If you already paid most of it through a provisional assessment, that amount is small and so is the interest. Also file your income tax return before 1 May.