Income tax
The hours criterion
1,225 hours a calendar year on your business, and the self-employed deduction opens up. Below it, nothing — not even pro rata.
In short
The urencriterium (hours criterion) decides whether you qualify for the Dutch self-employed deduction and the starter deduction. You meet it by spending at least 1,225 hours per calendar year on your business. A second condition applies as well: you have to spend more time on your business than on other work, such as a salaried job. If in at least one of the five preceding years you were not an entrepreneur, that second condition does not apply to you. The 1,225 hours do not scale with the part of the year you are in business: start in July and you still have to make them in six months. In 2026 the criterion is worth €1,200 in self-employed deduction, plus up to three times the starter deduction of €2,123 within your first five years.
Work it out with your own numbers: Freelancer net income calculator
The essentials
- The threshold
- 1,225 hours per calendar year on your business or businesses. There is no part-year version: start in July and the full 1,225 still applies.
- The second condition
- More time on your business than on other work. If in at least one of the 5 preceding years you were not an entrepreneur, this condition does not apply to you.
- What it is worth in 2026
- €1,200 in self-employed deduction, and up to three times €2,123 in starter deduction within the first five years. Half of that from state pension age.
Do I meet the hours criterion?
Enter how many hours a week you work on your business — everything counted, including quotes, bookkeeping and finding clients — and how many weeks you run it this calendar year. The check tests both conditions.
| Hours on your business this year | 1,380 |
|---|---|
| Required per calendar year | 1,225 |
| Difference | 155 hours to spare |
| Needed per week in these weeks | 27 |
| Hours on other work this year | 0 |
| More time on your business than on other work | yes |
| Hours criterion | met |
Two conditions, not one
The hours criterion is two requirements that both have to hold. The first is the number: at least 1,225 hours per calendar year on your business or businesses together. The second is that more than half of all the time you spend working goes to your business. Someone working 40 hours a week in a salaried job with a business on the side in the evenings usually trips over the second requirement, not the first.
For starters that second requirement does not exist. If in at least one of the five preceding calendar years you were not an entrepreneur for Dutch income tax, you only have to meet the 1,225 hours. That is exactly the position of someone who has just started in the Netherlands and is keeping a job alongside it for now.
Do you meet the hours criterion?
- You are an entrepreneur for income tax → At least 1,225 hours on your business this calendar year?
- At least 1,225 hours on your business this calendar year? — yes → Not an entrepreneur in at least one of the five preceding years?
- At least 1,225 hours on your business this calendar year? — no → You don't qualify: no self-employed deduction
- Not an entrepreneur in at least one of the five preceding years? — yes → You qualify: self-employed deduction
- Not an entrepreneur in at least one of the five preceding years? — no → More than half of your working time on your business?
- More than half of your working time on your business? — yes → You qualify: self-employed deduction
- More than half of your working time on your business? — no → You don't qualify: no self-employed deduction
Which hours count
Not only the hours you invoice. Everything you do for the business counts: writing quotes, keeping your books, building your business website, finding clients, keeping up with your trade. For anyone just starting out those are often more hours than the paid work itself.
What does not count is being available without working — waiting for a job is not an hour worked. Record it as it happens: the Dutch tax authority (Belastingdienst) can ask for an hours record, and a list reconstructed after the fact carries less weight than a calendar kept as you went.
The trap for anyone starting mid-year
This is where it goes wrong most often. The 1,225 hours is an annual figure and is not reduced pro rata. Register with the KvK in October and you still have to make those 1,225 hours within that calendar year — in three months, which works out at over ninety hours a week.
In practice, anyone starting late in the year usually misses the self-employed deduction for that first year. That is not a mistake in your books but a consequence of the rule. The consolation: you may use the starter deduction three times within your first five years, so a missed first year is not the end of it.
What it is worth, and who it works differently for
In 2026 the self-employed deduction is €1,200. It is a deduction from your profit, not a sum you get back: what it nets you depends on your rate. The amount has been stepped down over recent years, so do not budget with the figure you memorised a few years ago.
Two exceptions. Anyone who has reached state pension age at the start of the calendar year gets half the amount. And for the starter deduction in case of incapacity for work, a reduced criterion of 800 hours applies instead of 1,225.
In booxx you indicate under IB & Zvw reservation whether you meet the hours criterion and whether you are a starter; the estimate of what to set aside for the assessment then calculates with or without the self-employed deduction and the starter's deduction. Your hours themselves you track in your calendar or a time-tracking tool — the software doesn't count them for you.
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Updated October 2, 2026. General explanation of the Dutch rules, not tax advice — for your own situation, decide together with your accountant or the Dutch Tax Administration.
Frequently asked questions
Do travel hours count towards the hours criterion?
Travel time for the business counts in principle as work for the business, but how that lands in a concrete case can become a discussion with the Dutch tax authority (Belastingdienst) — certainly for long trips that are partly private. Record every trip with date, destination and reason, and take the doubtful ones to your accountant.
Do I have to be able to prove my hours?
Yes, and the burden of proof is on you. The Dutch tax authority (Belastingdienst) can ask for an hours record. A calendar or timesheet kept while the work happens is the strongest evidence; a summary reconstructed afterwards is far weaker.
I also have a salaried job — can I still meet the hours criterion?
You can reach the 1,225 hours, but then the second condition comes into play: you have to spend more time on your business than on your job. If in at least one of the five preceding years you were not an entrepreneur, that second condition does not apply and the 1,225 hours are enough.
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