When you register with the KVK, the Dutch chamber of commerce, you have to state what your business does, and that is recorded in an SBI code. For most entrepreneurs that is a thirty-second formality. For content creators it is not, for two reasons that have nothing to do with tax.
First, your code is public in the trade register, with a description. Second, banks and payment providers look at that code when assessing a business account. Both can catch you out, and both are avoidable by choosing well once.
What an SBI code is and what it is not
The SBI code is a statistical classification of business activities. Statistics Netherlands uses the codes to count how many businesses are active in which sector. The KVK records yours when you register.
What the code does not do, and this is the most important sentence in this article: it decides nothing about your tax position. Your tax rate, your deductions, your VAT treatment and your entitlement to the self-employed allowance all depend on what you actually do and on your figures, not on which code sits in the register. There is no code that is more or less favourable for tax.
What the code does do:
- It is publicly readable with your registration, with a description
- Banks and payment providers use it when accepting a business account
- Insurers use it when assessing risk
- It puts you in certain databases and therefore in certain mailings
The codes that come into view for creators
There is no SBI code literally called content creator, which explains why this question comes up so often. What there is are codes close to the various kinds of work. The directions it usually comes down to:
- Writing and other creative arts. For creative work you conceive and make yourself. Broad and neutrally worded.
- Photography. If photography is the core of your work.
- Production of film, video and television programmes. For anyone mainly making video.
- Advertising agencies or advertising services. If the majority of your turnover comes from paid collaborations and promotion.
- Other business services. The residual category, usable when nothing fits well.
We deliberately name no numbers here. The SBI list is revised periodically and codes are merged or renumbered, and copying a wrong number out of a two-year-old blog is exactly how people end up with a code that no longer exists. Look up the current description in the KVK's SBI search tool and choose there.
Choose more than one
You may state several activities. That is not merely allowed, it is often more accurate. A creator who makes video, photographs and does paid collaborations is in fact doing three things.
The first code you state is your principal activity, and it weighs heaviest in how you are classified. So put there what produces the majority of your turnover, not what sounds nicest.
The publicity, and what you can do about it
For creators who do not want to be linked to their name and their work, the description attached to your code is relevant. Some descriptions say nothing in particular. Others make immediately clear which corner you work in.
There is no trick here, and we are not going to suggest one: your code has to cover your actual activity. What you can do is choose the most neutral code that correctly describes your activity. For a creator making video and doing paid collaborations, several codes cover the reality, and there is then no objection to choosing the most neutral.
That is one part of a larger privacy story. The address in your registration is a far bigger risk than your code, and there is more to be done about it. See KVK registration and your privacy.
Why your bank trips over this
This is the practical problem that surprises creators. Banks and payment providers run policies on certain sectors, and use the SBI code as a first filter. End up with a code that falls into a heightened-risk category at a bank and an application for a business account can be refused or produce extra questions.
What helps: choose a code that describes your work correctly and is not unnecessarily specific, and be open about what you do when opening an account. A refusal following incomplete information is harder to repair than a conversation beforehand. And an account closed later because the bank finds something other than expected is the scenario you really want to avoid, because you are then left without a means of payment in the middle of a running year.
Changing your code
If your work changes, you amend your registration. That can be done at the KVK and it is not a drastic step. Do it when your principal activity genuinely shifts, from photography to predominantly video for instance, or when you start a second line.
What you do not have to do: adjust your code because your turnover grows, or because you start on a new platform doing the same kind of work.
Your business account: what to arrange in advance
Because the SBI code pinches for creators mainly through the bank, here is the practical side. A refusal or an account closed later is the biggest operational risk attached to this choice, and it is largely avoidable.
What helps when opening one:
- Be open about what you do. An application that turns out to have been incomplete is harder to repair than a conversation beforehand. An account closed after a year because the bank finds something other than expected is the scenario you really want to avoid, because you are then left mid-year without a means of payment.
- Choose a code that describes your work correctly and not unnecessarily specifically. Several codes covering your activity is normal, and the most neutral is then a legitimate choice.
- Ask in advance if in doubt. Some providers will say whether a sector fits within their policy before you apply.
- Have a second option ready. Policies differ sharply across business account providers, so a refusal at one says little about another.
Why this matters beyond convenience: without a business account you have payouts made to your private account, and your records then become a matter of sorting hundreds of credits by hand. See bookkeeping your payouts.
Stating several activities, and which goes first
The first code you state is your principal activity and it weighs heaviest in how you are classified, including by banks and insurers. Put there what produces the majority of your turnover.
A creator who makes video, photographs and does paid collaborations can rightly state three codes. The question is which goes first. If eighty percent of your turnover comes from brand deals, a code in the advertising corner is more accurate than a creative one, even if the work feels creative. If the majority is your own content on platforms, it is the other way round.
What you meet on the insurance side
The code comes back with a liability or contents insurance, and the most important rule here is that the code has to match what you actually do. Cover issued on the basis of an activity that is not your activity is cover you do not have when you claim.
For a creator with expensive equipment that is not an edge case. Equipment used or transported outside your home often falls outside an ordinary household contents policy, and whether a business policy pays out is tied to how your activity is recorded. That is worth checking once, at the moment your equipment becomes worth more than you could replace yourself.
Frequently asked questions
Can I be fined for a wrong SBI code?
You are obliged to keep your registration accurate, so a code that does not cover your activity ought to be amended. In practice this is not a subject for fines, but it can have consequences in the area of insurance and banking relationships: cover that does not match what you actually do is a problem at the moment you need it.
Does my SBI code decide whether I have to charge VAT?
No. Your VAT treatment follows from what you supply and to whom, not from your code. See VAT on your OnlyFans income.
Does my code affect the self-employed allowance?
No. That depends on the hours criterion and on whether you are an entrepreneur. See the self-employed allowance and the hours criterion.
What if the KVK rejects my choice?
That rarely happens with a code that covers your activity. If you get questions, describe concretely what you do and which revenue streams you have. Often a code emerges from that which fits better than the first one you found yourself.
What sits next to your code in the trade register
The code does not stand alone. Your registration carries a description of your activities, and you can add to it in your own words. That field is often filled in without thought and it is publicly readable, just like the code itself.
So keep that description businesslike and general. "Producing and exploiting online content and carrying out paid collaborations" covers the work of virtually every creator, is true, and says nothing you do not want to say. A description naming your platform or your niche does, and cannot later be taken out of the copies of the register that third parties have made.
In closing
The SBI code is fiscally irrelevant and practically not. Choose a code that describes your work correctly and as neutrally as possible, state several if that is more accurate, and put your attention on the address in your registration instead. That is where the real privacy question sits.
We guide the registration as part of getting started, for creators on OnlyFans, F2F and other platforms. See how we work.