What must I arrange as self-employed besides KVK registration?
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Detailed explanation, checklist and sources
A KVK number does not automatically arrange taxes, workplace safety or income during illness and retirement. Check activities, premises, records and protection separately.
On this page
- Check premises and professional rules
- Separate tax status and deductions
- Retain records long enough
- Check safety and working hours
- Arrange additional pension provision
- Compare sickness-income protection
- Plan closure before deregistration
- Does a KVK number make me an entrepreneur for everything?
- Documents to prepare
- Sources
1. Check premises and professional rules
Choose a suitable legal form and use the existing KVK route. For home business check the municipal environment plan, notifications/permits and professional requirements before starting. Renting, buying and homeworking differ; business use of part of a home can affect income tax and VAT. Care providers have extra registration/quality requirements; use the separate guide.
2. Separate tax status and deductions
The tax authority separately assesses income-tax entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurs declare profit; neither entrepreneur nor employee often means income from other work without entrepreneur facilities. Ordinary 2026 self-employed deduction is € 1,200, requiring entrepreneur status and the hours test; start-up addition € 2,123 has extra conditions, at most three times in the first five years. AOW age at year-start halves these. Check profit limits, unused deductions and return from a bv. Proposed start-up deduction cuts to € 10 in 2027 and zero in 2028 remain proposals on 19 October 2026.
Rijksoverheid · Belasting zzp ↗
3. Retain records long enough
Keep core business records seven years; real-estate/related-right records and transactions under the VAT one-stop-shop Union or Import schemes ten years. Time starts only when information ceases to be current: a live contract remains throughout its term first. Shorter retention for other records requires written tax-authority agreement; core records remain seven years. Closing does not erase retention duties.
4. Check safety and working hours
Genuine self-employment usually falls outside the Working Hours Act, but authority relationships and transport, mining installations or diving have exceptions. Safety duties remain: protect yourself and others, for instance from falls. Shared workplaces also require measures against other risks; solo work has different scope. Genuine self-employed people have no system duty such as RI&E, but under authority all occupational rules may apply. The Labour Inspectorate can enforce and fine.
5. Arrange additional pension provision
AOW depends on insured years, not KVK registration alone. Check mandatory profession/sector schemes, for example certain healthcare professions and painters. Options include voluntary collective arrangements, annuities with insurers/banks/investment firms and sometimes continuing a former employer's scheme if permitted. Its contributions may be deductible for up to ten years after leaving. Annuity deductions require qualifying products and tax headroom. Dgas cannot newly accrue pension within their own bv since 1 July 2017. No new FOR accrual since 2023; existing reserves require settlement.
6. Compare sickness-income protection
Compare savings, individual/group AOV, voluntary UWV insurance and a broodfonds. A broodfonds provides gifts under its rules, generally for the first two sick years, not automatic long-term insurance. Check waiting time, incapacity definition, exclusions, duration and premiums. Government describes a starter safety-net route within the first fifteen months for hard-to-insure risks; member AOV insurers follow industry self-regulation, not unlimited acceptance. UWV has separate eligibility/deadlines; see its guide.
7. Plan closure before deregistration
Calculate final tax, pension and income before closure. Complete cessation may create taxable cessation profit; cessation deduction is at most € 3,630 over your lifetime, unused balance available later, excluding profit as a co-entitled investor. A cessation annuity or rollover may apply conditionally. Bbz can help during winding down; IOAZ may apply from 55 after assessment. Enquire in time before closing. Deregistration does not settle taxes, contracts or record duties.
Does a KVK number make me an entrepreneur for everything?
No. Tax status and authority relationships are assessed separately. Permits, safety and personal income protection also need separate arrangements.
Documents to prepare
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- Activities, legal form and premises
- Environment plan and profession
- Tax status, hours and returns
- Retention and contracts
- Safety, authority and hours
- Pension, sickness buffer and closure
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Rijksoverheid · Start en vestiging ↗Rijksoverheid · Belasting zzp ↗Belastingdienst · Administratie7/10jaar ↗Rijksoverheid · Arbeidstijden ↗Arboportaal · Zzpveiligheid ↗Rijksoverheid · Pensioen ↗Rijksoverheid · Arbeidsongeschiktheid verzekeren ↗Rijksoverheid · Stoppen ↗Belastingdienst · Stakingsaftrek ↗Belastingdienst · Zelfstandigenaftrek ↗Belastingdienst · Startersaftrek ↗Sources may be in Dutch. General information about Dutch law, not individual legal advice.