Of all the questions creators ask us, this is the most common and the most often answered wrongly: do I have to charge BTW on my OnlyFans income? The short answer is that you usually charge 0% and still file a return every quarter. That sounds contradictory, and it is exactly where most mistakes start.
BTW is Dutch VAT. To understand why the two halves of that answer fit together, you need one thing clear: for tax purposes, who is your customer?
Your fan is not your customer
It feels like you are selling to your subscribers. Fiscally you are not. On platforms like OnlyFans, Fansly and similar services, the fan enters into an agreement with the platform, not with you. The platform collects the money, accounts for VAT to the fan where it has to, and pays you afterwards.
What you supply is therefore a service to the platform. That is the transaction that belongs in your books. And because the platform is a business customer abroad, the VAT treatment shifts entirely.
This has a practical consequence that surprises many creators: your turnover is not what your fans paid, but what the platform settled with you. The difference is the commission the platform withholds. How to record that correctly is in bookkeeping your OnlyFans payouts.
Services to a business customer abroad
For digital services to a business customer, VAT is levied in the customer's country rather than yours. You charge no Dutch VAT. Where it shifts to depends on where the platform is established, and that makes a real difference to your return:
- Platform inside the EU. You are making an intra-Community supply. You charge 0% and state on your invoice that VAT is reverse-charged to the customer. On top of that you file an ICP return, in which you report each quarter how much you supplied to which VAT number.
- Platform outside the EU. The service falls outside Dutch VAT. You charge no VAT, and there is no ICP return, because that exists only for EU supplies.
The second point is where it usually goes wrong. Creators who dutifully file an ICP return for a platform outside the EU are reporting something that does not belong there. Creators who file no ICP for an EU platform are missing a mandatory return. Both produce correspondence that one afternoon of checking would have prevented. The full story is in the ICP return creators forget.
Find out where your platform sits, and do not rely on a list
This is the point where we deliberately make no blanket statement. Platforms change the entity you contract with, and a platform invoicing from one country today may invoice from another next year. That is not theoretical: it has happened at several platforms in recent years.
What to read it from:
- The name of the legal entity on your payout statement or in your agreement, not the brand name of the app
- The address of that entity
- Its VAT identification number, if the platform provides one
Those three decide whether you file an ICP return or not. If they change, your return changes with them. Put a yearly reminder in your calendar to check.
You charge 0%, and you still file
This is the heart of the confusion. 0% VAT is not the same as no VAT obligation. You are an entrepreneur for VAT purposes, you hold a VAT number, and so you file a return every quarter. That return states your turnover at the rate that applies to it. Often the amount payable is nil, or you get money back.
Because that is the other side of it: the VAT you pay on your business purchases is reclaimable. Your camera, your lights, your software, your subscriptions. If you charge 0% on your turnover and reclaim the VAT on your costs, you end up structurally in a refund position. That is not a trick; it is precisely how the system is meant to work for anyone who exports.
Concretely: buy 2,400 euro of equipment and software including VAT in a quarter, and at the high rate that contains roughly 416 euro of VAT you get back. File no return and you leave that money on the table.
Why the KOR is often the wrong choice here
When applying for a VAT number, many creators are offered the kleineondernemersregeling, the Dutch small businesses scheme, as the simple option. Under the KOR you file no VAT returns, but you also cannot reclaim any VAT.
For a creator charging 0% on turnover while paying VAT on equipment, that is a poor trade: you give up a structural refund in exchange for less paperwork. Four returns a year that your accountant files, against a few hundred euro annually. We have run the numbers in the KOR as a creator: when it works against you.
What does carry Dutch VAT
Not all your income runs through a platform. As soon as you settle directly with a customer, the picture can flip:
- A brand deal with a Dutch company. An ordinary service to a Dutch business, with Dutch VAT on your invoice.
- A brand deal with a company elsewhere in the EU. Reverse-charged, plus ICP.
- Selling something to consumers. Think of your own shop, a guide or merchandise. You are then selling to consumers and different rules apply, with thresholds for cross-border sales.
- Payments you receive outside a platform. Money straight from a fan to your account is still turnover, and the treatment depends on who that fan is and where they are.
Most creators therefore do not have one VAT regime but two or three side by side. That is perfectly manageable, as long as you keep them apart in your records instead of lumping everything together.
What you supply each quarter
For a correct VAT return we need, per quarter:
- The payout statements from all your platforms, with the gross amounts and the commission withheld
- The invoices you sent yourself, for brand deals for instance
- All purchase receipts and invoices carrying VAT
- The transactions on your business account
The deadline is the last day of the month following the quarter. For the first quarter that is 30 April, and so on. We ask well in advance for whatever is still missing, precisely so that date never becomes an event.
What goes on your invoice
Even at 0%, the invoice is the document that supports your position. What belongs on it:
- Your own name or trade name, address and VAT identification number
- The name and address of the platform's legal entity, not the brand name
- That entity's VAT number, if the platform provides one
- A sequential invoice number and the date
- A description of what you supplied
- The amount, at the rate that applies
- For an EU customer, a statement that VAT has been reverse-charged
That reverse-charge wording is not decoration. In a discussion about whether you were right to charge 0%, the invoice carrying that line plus your customer's valid VAT number is your evidence. Without it the reverse charge is contestable, and the VAT can land back with you, over your full turnover.
Three mistakes we see most often when taking over
Dutch VAT charged on platform turnover. Someone has paid 21% on income from a foreign platform. That is overpaid and reclaimable, but only within the time limits that apply. The longer it runs, the more falls out of reach.
No return filed because the rate was 0%. The reasoning is understandable, and the result is that the refund on equipment was never collected. For a creator who bought 8,000 euro of gear over two years, that is more than 1,300 euro nobody ever claimed.
Commission booked as a reduction of turnover. Recorded net instead of gross, so the turnover figure in the return is wrong. That shows up when the turnover in your VAT return does not reconcile with your income tax return, and that is exactly one of the things compared automatically.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need a VAT number if I am only on OnlyFans?
Yes. You are an entrepreneur for VAT as soon as you independently and regularly earn from your work, even if the rate on your turnover is 0%. You get the number when you register with the KVK, the Dutch Chamber of Commerce.
Do I have to send invoices to the platform?
You are required to have an invoice for your supply. In practice many creators use the platform's payout statement as support, and we draw up an invoice alongside it so your records are complete and the reverse-charge wording is there where it needs to be.
I have never filed and I have been earning for two years. What now?
Then there are open quarters to put right, and that is almost always fixable. Because you are often in a refund position, the outcome regularly lands more favourably than people fear. See putting a backlog of returns right.
Does this apply to Fansly, F2F or Patreon too?
Same principle, different entity. Per platform you determine where the customer sits. If you work across several platforms at once, read several platforms, one set of books.
In closing
VAT is rarely complicated for creators, but it is counter-intuitive. Your customer is the platform. That platform is usually outside the Netherlands. That is why you charge 0%, and precisely why filing is attractive rather than a nuisance.
We handle the quarterly return and, where needed, the ICP for creators on OnlyFans, F2F and other platforms. What we need from you and when is set out in how we work.