Bookkeeping for freelance IT professionals and developers

Invoicing clients in and outside the EU

If you work for a business client in another EU country, you reverse-charge the VAT to your client. You invoice without VAT, state 'VAT reverse-charged' plus your client's VAT number, and report the turnover in your VAT return and in the EC sales listing (ICP). Verify your client's VAT number in advance via VIES, because without a valid number you may not reverse-charge.

For business clients outside the EU, for example in the US or the UK, your service is usually taxed in the client's country. You then invoice without Dutch VAT. For Dutch business clients you simply charge 21%. If you work through an intermediary or platform, check carefully who your client is for tax purposes: that determines which rules apply.

SaaS subscriptions and foreign purchases

Hosting, development tools, AI services, licences: as a developer you buy a lot of software from foreign suppliers. If you buy from an EU supplier and have registered your VAT number there, the VAT is reverse-charged to you. You declare that reverse-charged VAT in your return and deduct it again in the same return as input tax: on balance you pay nothing, but the return must be correct. Services from outside the EU are processed in a similar way in your return.

Two pitfalls. One: if your VAT number is not registered with the supplier, they often charge local or Dutch VAT that you may not simply deduct as input tax. So arrange that in your account settings. Two: a credit card statement is not an invoice. Download the actual invoice for every subscription, because only that substantiates your deduction.

Long assignments and disguised employment

IT is the classic sector where freelancers spend months full-time with a single client, embedded in the team and working with the client's equipment. Since enforcement of the DBA Act was tightened, this is a real point of attention. Look critically at your own situation: do you decide how the work is done, do you bear entrepreneurial risk, do you have multiple clients per year? The more you operate as if you were an employee, the greater the risk the working relationship is treated as employment.

What helps: work with a clear assignment description and your own approach, use your own equipment where possible, spread your assignments and record agreements in a contract for services. That does not give complete certainty, but it demonstrably strengthens your position as an entrepreneur. If your work sits more on the design side, bookkeeping for the self-employed web designer is a closer fit.

Equipment, home office and training

Your laptop, monitors and peripherals are business costs; above 450 euros excluding VAT you depreciate them over several years in practice, and with investments above 2,900 euros per year the small-scale investment deduction comes into view. Your home workspace itself is rarely deductible, but your internet costs in proportion to business use, professional literature, conferences and courses that keep your knowledge current for your present work are. If you develop something technically new yourself, also look at the WBSO deduction for research and development work.

High hourly rate, high tax bill: reserve immediately

Freelance developers often generate solid turnover with relatively low costs. That means a high profit and thus a substantial income tax bill, especially if part of your profit falls in the top 49.50% bracket. Set aside a percentage of every paid invoice immediately and consider a provisional assessment, so you do not have to settle everything at once and avoid tax interest.

The four focus points of an IT freelancer's records

A developer's books are technically simple: few receipts, no stock, often one invoice a month. The pitfalls sit elsewhere: the DBA risks of long engagements, foreign platform costs and where your turnover is taxed.

1. Long engagements with one client, in their team and their sprints, form the classic DBA risk profile. Guard your independence; see false self-employment.
2. Foreign tooling subscriptions (cloud, AI, repos) come with reverse-charged VAT: declare in box 4b for an EU supplier or 4a outside it, and deduct in 5b. Net zero, but mandatory.
3. Work for a foreign business client is reverse-charged (EU, with the sales listing) or taxed outside the Netherlands (non-EU). See VAT with clients abroad.
4. Equipment above € 450 is capitalised and depreciated; bundle purchases in one year for the 28 per cent investment deduction.

Frequently asked questions