Year-end tips for 2025 for ZZP and IB entrepreneurs
- Jenifer Benton
- Nov 30, 2025
- 7 min read
As the year draws to a close, it's time to look ahead. By taking action promptly, you can potentially save on taxes and take advantage of tax benefits that only apply before the end of the year.
Therefore we compiled a list of practical year-end tips that may be relevant to both your personal and business situations.
Important: All information in this article is based on the information available on the day of publication. Unfortunately, we cannot yet predict the future, and due to the flexible nature of the legislation, certain figures and rules may change in the future.
Overview:
Tips for ZZP and IB-entrepreneurs
Tips for all taxpayers
Tips for ZZP and IB-entrepreneurs
1. Provisional assessment 2026
If your profit from business deviates from expectations, apply for a new provisional income tax assessment in time. This prevents high tax interest of 6.5%.
2. Administration of data retention
As an entrepreneur, you are obligated to keep your records for 7 years. This concerns the basic data from your administration, such as the debtor and creditor administration, the purchase and sales administration and the general ledger. In the event of a postponement of the tax return, the period of seven years is extended by the deferral granted. Data about real estate and rights to real estate must be kept for 10 years.
3. Hours obligation
You may be eligible for certain entrepreneur deductions if you meet the hours criterion. To meet this hours criterion you must spend at least 1,225 hours on your business. That's why it is good to check whether you have spent enough hours on your business this year.
Please note You must be able to prove that you have worked the 1,225 hours in the event of an audit by the Tax and Customs Administration. You should keep track of this by, for example, an Excel sheet, emails and other documents that can justify your time administration.
4. Self-employed deduction
You can still use the self-employed deduction in your income tax return for an amount of € 2,470. The benefit is calculated at a rate of 37.48%. As of 1 January 2026, the self-employed deduction will be further reduced from €2,470 to €1,200. The self-employed deduction will be phased out at an accelerated pace to € 900 in 2027. This will reduce the tax differences between the self-employed and employees.
Please note For first-time self-employed there is an additional deduction of € 2,123 over a maximum of three years.
5. Disability insurance
You can get disability insurance to have income during illness, if you become disabled or have an accident. For this you pay premiums, and in the event of disability, the insurer pays you a one-off or periodic amount.
Disability insurance (AOV) is not yet mandatory for self-employed persons, but the government is working on a law (BAZ Act) that is expected to make it mandatory for all IB entrepreneurs to insure themselves from 2030, otherwise they will automatically join a basic provision through the UWV with a benefit up to the minimum wage. Now self-employed people can choose for themselves, but the government wants to offer everyone a safety net, with the option to take out their own, better AOV.
Please note Check whether you can deduct the premiums and whether your benefit is taxed.
6. Apply the small-scale investment deduction
When you invest, you are eligible for the investment deduction for small-scale investments. There is a minimum investment amount of €2,901, with each investment costing at least €450 excluding VAT.
Please note The percentage of deduction is highest if the total of liabilities is between €2,900 and €70,602, i.e. 28%.
7. De-investment addition
If you have sold or donated business assets for which you applied the investment deduction in previous years, you may have to repay part of that deduction in the form of a de-investment addition. Check in your records whether the period of 5 years has expired after the beginning of the calendar year in which the investment was made.
8. Research and development
You can get a deduction for research and development work under certain conditions. Check whether you are eligible. The amount of the deduction is € 15,738.
VAT-tips
9. Correct VAT rate
Different rates apply to VAT. Make sure that you apply the correct rate. The general rate is 21%. For some goods and services, the reduced rate of 9%, or 0%, applies. With 0% VAT, you do not charge VAT, but you can deduct VAT that you pay on your expenses as input tax.
Please note A number of goods and services are exempt from VAT. VAT that you pay for these goods or services cannot be deducted as input tax.
10. VAT correction for private use of company cars
If you make a company car available to your employees, you must pay VAT on the private use. If you do not keep records showing the private use of the car, a fixed percentage of 2.7% of the list price of the car, including VAT and bpm, applies.
Please note You must pay the VAT for the private use of the car via the last VAT return of the financial year.
Tips for the employer
11. Make use of the free space
You can spend part of your total taxable wage bill on tax-free allowances, benefits in kind and provisions for your employees. This is the discretionary margin and amounts to 2% of your taxable salary up to and including € 400,000. The discretionary margin is 1.18% on the excess of your taxable salary.
Please note You pay wage tax in the form of a final levy of 80% on the amount that exceeds the discretionary margin.
12. False self-employment
Review the contracts you have agreed with self-employed persons to ensure that the employment relationship is correctly classified, and record this assessment. The Tax and Customs Administration will be strictly enforcing the rules on false self-employment
Please note Even if you formally have a contract for services, in practice the terms and conditions of the contract may still closely resemble those of an employee. This is decisive for the tax authorities. As a result, you run the risk of fines and additional tax assessments.
13. Addition to taxable income for bicycle
If you make a bicycle available to your employee and this employee also uses the bicycle for private purposes, an addition applies. The addition amounts to 7% of the original new value of the bicycle and must be added to the salary.
14. Electric car workers
If you make a car available to your employee and this car is also used for private purposes, an addition applies. The addition percentage for regular lease cars is 22% and for zero-emission cars 17% up to € 30,000. If you make an electric lease car available this year, your employee will still benefit from the reduced addition rate of 17% up to a list price of € 30,000. This can provide a significant advantage over the life of a 5-year contract.
15. Deregistering as an employer
If you do not employ any employees, deregister as an employer from the Tax and Customs Administration. The obligation to file a wage tax return only ends when you deregister as an employer. You can deregister as an employer using the form 'Notification Payroll Taxes Deregistration employer'.
Please note After deregistration, you will receive a letter from the Tax and Customs Administration stating when you no longer have to file a payroll tax return. As long as you have not received that letter, you must continue to file payroll tax returns.
Tips for all taxpayers
16. Box 3 yield
You pay tax on the return on your assets in box 3. The Tax and Customs Administration assumes a fictitious return. But if the actual return is lower than the fictitious return, the Tax and Customs Administration must assume the actual return. When calculating the fictitious return, the Tax and Customs Administration has one reference moment. The Tax and Customs Administration looks at your assets and debts on 1 January. What happens after 1 January does not count towards the fictitious return. With the actual return, the Tax and Customs Administration does look at changes in your assets and debts during the tax year.
17. Tax-free donation
You can still make a tax-free gift of € 6,713 to your child this year. You can also choose not to make use of this annual exemption but give your child a one-off tax-free gift. If your child decides for himself what the purpose of your donation is, you may make a one-off tax-free donation of up to €32,195. If the donation is for an expensive study, you may donate a maximum of € 67,064 tax-free. Just make sure you make the donation if your child is between 18 and 40 years old.
18. Healthcare costs
Check whether you have incurred healthcare costs this year. You can deduct these costs under certain conditions. There is a threshold, which depends on the level of your income. The higher your income, the higher the threshold. Only healthcare costs that exceed the threshold are deductible. It is therefore fiscally attractive to bundle healthcare costs within a year if possible.
19. Postpone buying a second home
Are you planning to purchase a home that you will not use as your main residence? Then postpone this purchase until after 2025. The transfer tax for homes that you will not use as your main residence will be reduced from 10.4 to 8%.
As you can read in this article, there are a lot of year-end tips for ZZP and IB entrepreneurs this year. Fortunately, you are not alone; we are here to assist you with all your questions. Together, we can look at your personal situation to optimize your tax position.
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