The First-Year Ledger
A Dutch business year has a beat: four quarterly tax filings, one annual return, and for a DAFT founder, two numbers the IND will read at renewal. Here is the whole rhythm on one page.
Nothing here is hard. All of it is calendar. The founders who get hurt are the ones who discover the calendar late.
Every quarter you file a BTW return, the Dutch VAT, even when the answer is zero, due in the month after the quarter closes. Every spring you file the income tax return, where the hour criterion of 1,225 logged hours unlocks the entrepreneur deductions, though those are shrinking by design. And underneath the whole year run the two numbers a DAFT renewal is judged on: business equity that never dips below €4,500, and sustainable income of roughly €1,657 a month, a 2025 threshold that moves every year, with practitioners reporting the IND looking for €1,700 to €1,800 in practice, read from about month seven. Keep the beat and the two numbers, and year one is administration, not drama.
The quarterly beat
Due in the month after the quarter closes: April for Q1, July for Q2, October for Q3, January for Q4.
File even if the answer is zero. Silence is the only wrong answer.
The BTW you charged was never your money. A separate savings pocket makes this filing boring, which is the goal.
By now the rhythm should feel like laundry. If it feels like crisis, the fix is a bookkeeper, and they cost less than the stress.
The January filing closes the year the IND will eventually read. End it clean.
The two numbers the IND reads
The €4,500 is not a first-month formality, it is a line item that must still be true at renewal. One check per quarter with the bookkeeper keeps it a non-event.
The €4,500, properly explained →The renewal bar is sustainable income, roughly €1,657 a month, a 2025 threshold that moves every year, with practitioners reporting the IND looking for €1,700 to €1,800 in practice. It is read from roughly month seven onward. That makes months one through six the honest runway and month seven the first month that counts on paper. Plan the launch so the paying part of the business exists before the counter starts.
The deduction ladder, honestly
The Netherlands rewards logged entrepreneurship, but the reward is shrinking by design, so build the plan on the business, not the deductions.
Zelfstandigenaftrek: €1,200 in 2026, falling to €900 in 2027, requires the 1,225 hours
Startersaftrek: €2,123 extra in 2026, reduced in 2027 and abolished in 2028 under the Belastingplan 2027, stacked on top
MKB profit exemption: 12.7 percent of what remains after the deductions, for every entrepreneur, no hour test
File four times, log your hours, keep the equity line above €4,500, and make month seven the month the income story starts. Everything else is detail your accountant owns.
From our own file: we put the four BTW deadlines in the calendar before we had anything to file. It is the cheapest peace of mind in this entire folder.