The income tax return is rarely complicated for creators and often surprising. Surprising because the pre-filled data neatly contains the wages from a side job, knows your bank account and knows your mortgage, and says absolutely nothing about your platform income. That gap is yours to fill, and the Belastingdienst, the Dutch tax authority, assumes you will.
This article walks through the return in the order you work through it, noting at each step what is different for a creator than for an average entrepreneur.
Step 1: decide which category your income falls in
Before you enter a figure you have to know where it belongs. Profit from a business and income from other activities are two different parts of the return, with different consequences. The difference is worth thousands of euro and you do not choose it freely: it follows from the facts. Which facts those are is set out in hobby or business.
If you proceed as a business, you file a profit return. That is a more extensive part of the form, with a balance sheet and a profit and loss account. It sounds heavier than it is, but it is why a creator with a business is not finished in twenty minutes.
Step 2: your turnover, and then the right turnover
Here the first real trap begins. Your turnover is not what was credited to your bank account. It is what you earned, gross, before the platform's commission. That commission comes off again as a cost.
What belongs in your turnover:
- The gross earnings from every platform, per period
- Brand deals and paid collaborations
- The value of products or services you received in exchange, see brand deals and free products are turnover
- Direct payments from fans outside a platform
- Income from your own sales, merchandise or a guide
And the second trap: the year. What you earned in December but were paid in January belongs in the old year. That means a receivable from the platform sits on your balance sheet at 31 December. This item is missing from virtually every set of records we take over, and it shifts profit between two years. See bookkeeping your payouts.
Step 3: your costs
Everything that is business comes off your turnover. The full list by category is in what can you deduct as a content creator, but the items that weigh heaviest for a creator are:
- Platform commission
- Depreciation on equipment, see deduct or depreciate
- Software and subscriptions
- Services bought in: editor, photographer, assistant
- Travel costs
- The business share of your phone and internet
What is left is your profit from the business. That is not yet the amount you pay tax on.
Step 4: the entrepreneur allowances
A few items come off your profit in sequence, and the order is not arbitrary. First the entrepreneur allowances, among them the zelfstandigenaftrek, the self-employed person's allowance, and in your first years possibly a starter's allowance on top. For those you have to meet the hours criterion, and that is a genuine hurdle for creators with a job alongside. See the self-employed allowance and the hours criterion.
What remains after that is reduced by the MKB-winstvrijstelling, the SME profit exemption, a fixed percentage of your profit after the entrepreneur allowances. No hours criterion applies to it as long as you are an entrepreneur.
Both the amount of the self-employed allowance and the percentage of the SME profit exemption have changed in recent years, and the self-employed allowance is being phased down. We name no figure here, because a wrong figure is worse than no figure. Look up the numbers for your tax year, or have your accountant fill them in.
Step 5: investment allowance, if you had a big year
If you invested more than a certain amount in capital assets in one year, you can claim an investment allowance on top of the depreciation. For creators buying a camera, a lens, lighting and a new computer in a single year, that threshold is closer than they think.
Here too the threshold changes each year. What does not change: you have to add your investments together to see whether you reach it, and that only works if you recorded them in your books as investments rather than as costs.
Step 6: the rest of your return
Your business is one component. The same return also holds:
- Wages from a job, if you have or had one
- Your own home, mortgage interest and the notional rental value added to it
- Savings, investments and crypto in box 3
- Deductions that have nothing to do with your business, certain gifts or medical expenses for instance
- Your fiscal partner, if you have one, and the items the two of you can allocate between you
That last one is where creators with a partner most often find money. Some deductions may be allocated, and the most favourable split depends on both incomes. That is a calculation you do once and that pays off every year.
Deadlines and an extension
In principle the return for a year has to be in before 1 May of the following year. An extension is possible and applying is free. If you work with an accountant, there is an arrangement under which returns are filed spread across a longer period.
Two things to know about an extension. It postpones the return, not the tax: tax interest can be charged on an amount you pay later. And an extension is not a problem, whereas not filing is. The difference between the two is one application.
What you supply
For a complete return we need:
- The annual statements from all your platforms, with gross, commission and net
- All receipts and invoices for the year
- The annual statements for your business and private accounts
- Your hours record, if you want to claim the self-employed allowance
- Last year's figures, so the balance sheet reconciles
- The details of any job, home and savings
Point 5 is underestimated. A return starts from the balance sheet at 31 December of the year before. If that is wrong, the new return is wrong too, however neatly you supply the rest.
The balance sheet, and what is always missing on a creator's
A profit return comes with a balance sheet: what your business owns and what it owes, at 31 December. For a creator that is a short list, and three items on it are almost always absent.
- The receivable from your platforms. What you earned in December and received in January, plus anything sitting below a payout threshold.
- The book value of your equipment. What your capital assets are still worth after depreciation. Without this item next year's depreciation cannot be calculated.
- The VAT position. What you still owe or are owed for the last quarter.
Why this matters: the balance sheet at 31 December is the opening balance sheet of the following year. If it is wrong, the error is not a one-off but runs on into every subsequent return. When we take over a set of records this is the first thing we check, and it is also where we most often propose a correction to earlier years.
A provisional assessment: the best way to avoid a surprise
You can apply for a provisional assessment, under which you pay in instalments during the year instead of all at once afterwards. For creators with a growing income that is the difference between a normal year and an unpleasant spring.
Two things to know. A provisional assessment is an estimate you supply yourself and may adjust during the year: if your turnover goes up, you raise it. And if you are already paying roughly what you owe during the year, you limit the tax interest you would otherwise pay on the amount assessed later.
What we see in practice: someone has a good first year, pays nothing in advance, and in the second year receives the assessment for year one plus a provisional assessment for year two in the same period. Two years of tax in a few months, while the money has already been spent. That is not a tax problem but a liquidity problem, and it is entirely avoidable.
Setting money aside, without it having to be a system
A simple rule of thumb works better than a precise calculation you do not keep up: put a fixed share of every payout into a separate account and do not touch it. Which percentage fits depends on your profit and your situation, and that is one of the first things we calculate for you. What does not work is looking at the end of the year to see what is left.
Frequently asked questions
Why is my platform income not in the pre-filled return?
Because foreign platforms report nothing to the Dutch tax authority. Pre-filled data comes from Dutch employers, banks and institutions. Your income not being there does not mean it is unknown: exchange of data between countries exists, and bank credits are visible.
I made a loss. Do I still have to file?
Yes, and it is in your interest. A loss can be set against profit from other years, but only if it has been established in a return.
I have a job and earn something on the side. Do I pay tax twice?
No, but the levy works differently. Payroll tax has already been withheld on your wages at a rate that takes account of those wages alone. If your side earnings come on top, the total can fall into a higher bracket and you have to pay the difference. That is not double taxation but a settlement, and it is the most common reason creators with a job receive an assessment they were not expecting.
Can I do this myself?
The return itself: technically yes. The risk sits in the profit return, the balance sheet, the year transition and the question of which deductions you may claim. Those are exactly the four places where we find corrections when we take a file over.
In closing
The return is where a year of records comes together. If those records are in order, the return is a formality. If they are not, the return is the moment you find out, in April, with a deadline.
We take care of the income tax return for creators on OnlyFans, F2F, Twitch and YouTube and beyond, as part of the fixed monthly price. See how we work.