Registering at the Chamber of Commerce (KVK) does not make you an entrepreneur for income tax. The Belastingdienst looks at how you actually work. This check walks through the criteria it uses and tells you where you stand, without pretending to give a verdict.
The first question is whether your income is business profit at all. The Belastingdienst weighs a set of circumstances together: how many clients you have, whether you work independently, whether you run financial risk, whether you invest in your business and make yourself known as a business, and whether you earn a real profit. No single factor decides it.
The second question is the hours test. It is not a weighing exercise: you either spent at least 1,225 hours on your business in the year or you did not. It decides whether you get the self-employed deduction of EUR 1,200 and the starter's deduction of EUR 2,123. The SME profit exemption of 12.7% has no hours test.
Whether you are an entrepreneur for income tax is a different question from whether a particular assignment is really employment. For that second question the courts look at all the circumstances of the working relationship, including whether the work is embedded in the client's organisation and whether you behave as a business in the market. The enforcement moratorium ended on 1 January 2025, so the Belastingdienst can impose payroll tax assessments again.
No tool can decide this for you, and this one does not try. It shows which circumstances point which way, so you know what to change or what to ask an adviser.
You answer questions about your clients, your independence, your risk and your hours. The check shows per criterion whether it supports entrepreneurship, and works out the deductions you would be entitled to on your profit. Rates and thresholds are indexed every year. The calculator uses the published 2026 figures; check the Belastingdienst for your own tax year before you act on a result.
No. Registration is a formality. The Belastingdienst decides on the facts: clients, independence, risk, investment, visibility as a business and profit.
One client is a signal against entrepreneurship, not proof. It weighs less in a first year or when other circumstances, such as your own risk and investment, clearly point the other way.
No. The hours test only decides whether you get the self-employed deduction and the starter's deduction. You can be an entrepreneur with fewer hours, without those deductions.
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Indicative calculation, not tax advice. No rights can be derived from the result. Check amounts and rates for your year with the Belastingdienst or your adviser.