Quarterly VAT Guide

In this guide we'll cover the general workflow on how to put together your quarterly VAT filling as a dutch freelance zzp'er

freelancebookkeeping.nl

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Important Disclaimer: This guide is a work in progress and not complete. It's meant to be used as a rough guide to get you started please double check the rules with

Gathering Invoices and Receipts

When it comes to VAT (Value Added Tax or btw - belasting over de toegevoegde waarde), keeping on top of your documents is essential. The aim here is to put in place a process that’s straightforward and painless.

Understanding the Importance of Each Document

Invoices and receipts are the bread and butter of your VAT records. These documents (bonnetje for receipts, factuur for invoices) hold the key information needed by the Dutch tax authority (Belastingdienst). You need to keep your records for at least 7 years.

Organising Your Documents

Create a simple folder system for each of your businesses.

  1. Sort by Type:
    • Expenses - Receipts or invoices of things you buy for your business; PDFs or images are both fine
    • Revenue - Invoices of things you got paid for; PDFs or images are both fine
    • Bank Statements - Your bank statements for each bank account you have for your business per quarter; CSV or MT940 are ok
  2. Sort by Quarter: Within each type folder, create a folder for each quarter
- ACME/
    - Expenses/
        - 2024-Q1/
        - 2024-Q2/
        - 2024-Q3/
    - Revenue/
        - 2024-Q1/
        - 2024-Q2/
        - 2024-Q3/
    - BankStatements/
        - 2024-Q1/
        - 2024-Q2/
        - 2024-Q3/

To make sure you don't miss any expenses, it’s a good idea to go through all your bank transactions for the quarter and find the invoice for the transaction, then place it in the corresponding folder.