Accounting
Bookkeeping
Taxes
Provisional Tax Assessment in the Netherlands: How to Request One and When It Saves Money
What is a voorlopige aanslag in the Netherlands? See IB vs VPB deadlines, a real belastingrente example, and how to request or change one.
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15 mins
Intro
Most Dutch entrepreneurs think about tax once a year, when the definitieve aanslag lands in their letterbox. By then, the choice of how to pay is already gone, and the interest clock may already be running. The voorlopige aanslag, the provisional tax assessment, turns tax from a year-end surprise into a manageable monthly payment, and when used correctly, it can eliminate belastingrente entirely.
This article covers both versions of the mechanism, IB for sole traders and DGAs personally, and VPB for BVs, what deadlines actually matter in 2026, a real worked example showing what inaction costs in euros, and exactly how to request or change one through the Belastingdienst portals. Which version applies to you in the first place depends on your legal structure; if you are still weighing that decision, BV or sole trader is worth reading alongside this, since IB and VPB are not interchangeable and the choice of entity determines which mechanism you actually deal with.
What the Voorlopige Aanslag Is and Why It Exists
The Dutch tax system collects most personal income tax and corporate tax after the year has already closed. The voorlopige aanslag bridges that gap by estimating current-year tax and collecting it in monthly instalments instead of one large settlement at the end. It exists in two forms, IB for individuals and sole traders, VPB for BVs, both serving the same purpose but running on different rails with different deadlines.
The risk of doing nothing is asymmetric, and it is worth understanding why. If the assessment turns out too high, the worst outcome is simply a delayed refund; your money comes back once the definitieve aanslag is settled. If it turns out too low, the Belastingdienst charges 5% belastingrente, the 2026 rate, on the underpaid balance from 1 July 2026 onwards. One side of this asymmetry costs you nothing but patience; the other side costs real money.
Key takeaway: The voorlopige aanslag is not your final tax bill. It is an estimate based on prior-year data. The definitieve aanslag, issued after you file your aangifte, is the real settlement. If the provisional assessment was too high, you get money back. If it was too low, you pay the difference, and potentially 5% belastingrente on top.
The Belastingdienst bases both the IB and VPB voorlopige aanslag on prior-year figures, typically 2024 data feeding into the 2026 estimate. For any business whose 2026 results are tracking materially differently from that baseline, the automatic assessment is almost certainly wrong, and it will stay wrong until someone actively corrects it. Understanding roughly what you owe in the first place is the starting point here; see how much tax you pay for the broader picture of what a BV's tax position actually looks like across a full year.
It helps to think of the voorlopige aanslag as a running estimate rather than a bill in the traditional sense. Nobody at the Belastingdienst is trying to guess your exact 2026 result down to the euro; the system simply extrapolates forward from the most recent complete year it has on file, and it keeps doing that until you tell it something has changed. That default behaviour works fine for a stable business with flat year-on-year revenue. It works poorly for a business that grew quickly, took on a large new contract, sold an asset, or had one unusually strong quarter, since none of that context exists anywhere in the prior-year figures the estimate is built from.
IB vs VPB: The Key Differences Side by Side
Both versions of the voorlopige aanslag share the same underlying logic, but they differ meaningfully in who receives them automatically, how often they can be changed, and which deadlines actually apply.
Aspect | IB (eenmanszaak, ZZP, DGA personal) | VPB (BV, NV) |
|---|---|---|
Received automatically? | Not always; depends on prior year | Most BVs receive one automatically in January |
Based on | Prior year IB return, usually 2024 | Prior year VPB figures, usually 2024 |
Deadline to avoid belastingrente on 2025 | Request or file aangifte before 1 May 2026 | Request before 1 May 2026, or file aangifte before 1 June 2026 |
Belastingrente rate 2026 | 5% per year | 5% per year |
Interest starts | From 1 July 2026 on late assessments | From 1 July 2026 on late assessments |
Maximum changes per year | Unlimited | 3 changes per year, a hard limit |
How to change | Mijn Belastingdienst with DigiD | Mijn Belastingdienst Zakelijk with eHerkenning |
Response time | Within 8 weeks | Within 8 weeks |
Can you make bezwaar? | No, wijzigingsverzoek only | No, wijzigingsverzoek only; an afwijkingsbeschikking can be contested |
Broken financial year | Not applicable | Interest starts 6 months after boekjaar end |
Watch out: The VPB limit of 3 changes per year is a hard ceiling. If you use all three early in the year on minor upward adjustments and then experience a major profit shift in Q4, you cannot request a fourth change. Always save at least one wijziging for the final quarter, when your full-year profit estimate is most accurate.
DGA founders sit in an unusual two-layer position that this table does not fully capture on its own: the BV pays VPB on its own profit, while the DGA personally owes IB on salary through box 1 and on dividends through box 2. A DGA planning a significant dividend distribution should request a voorlopige aanslag IB specifically to spread that box 2 tax across monthly payments, rather than facing a single large settlement the following spring; DGA salary vs dividend covers how those two income streams interact in more detail.
The Cost of Not Acting: A Worked Example
The 5% belastingrente rate sounds modest in isolation, almost too small to plan around. Applied to a realistic tax balance, the picture gets more concrete, and more worth avoiding.
Technologie BV had a strong 2025: taxable profit came in at 80,000 euros, well above the roughly 52,000 euros the company averaged in prior years. Its automatic voorlopige aanslag VPB, generated in January based on that older, lower figure, was never updated during the year. The 2025 VPB aangifte was eventually filed in August 2026, and the definitieve aanslag arrived on 15 September 2026.
Here is what that gap actually cost:
VPB owed on 80,000 euros at 19%: 15,200 euros
VPB already paid through the (outdated) voorlopige aanslag, based on 52,000 euros: 9,880 euros
Underpaid balance: 5,320 euros
Interest period: 1 July 2026 to 15 September 2026, 76 days
Belastingrente: 5,320 × 5% × (76/365) = 55.44 euros
Had Technologie BV either filed its 2025 VPB aangifte before 1 June 2026, or simply updated the voorlopige aanslag before 1 May 2026, that 55.44 euros would have been zero. The number itself is not enormous at this scale; scaled up to a BV with 600,000 euros in profit and a 100,000-euro underpayment, the same 76-day window produces well over 1,000 euros in entirely avoidable interest.
It is worth being precise about what belastingrente actually is here, since it is easy to confuse with the penalties that apply for genuinely late filing. Belastingrente is not a fine; it is closer to the interest a bank would charge on an unpaid balance, calculated purely on timing. Filing or paying late on top of an inaccurate provisional assessment stacks a second, separate cost on top of the first, since the Belastingdienst applies its own late-payment interest rules in addition to belastingrente once a deadline has actually passed rather than merely been estimated incorrectly; see when to file VAT for how that separate late-filing interest mechanism works on the VAT side, which follows a similar logic.
Key takeaway: For most BVs, the direct euro cost of missing the May or June deadline is genuinely modest. The stronger argument is cash flow certainty: spreading tax into monthly instalments removes the risk of a large, unplanned payment landing in autumn when the definitieve aanslag finally arrives.
Should You Request, Reduce, or Leave It Alone? A Decision Checklist
The voorlopige aanslag works best treated as a living document that reflects your current financial position, not something you set once in January and forget about. Review it whenever your profit picture shifts materially, and use this as a quick sorting tool.
Request a new voorlopige aanslag when:
You are ZZP or eenmanszaak, expect significant IB this year, and have not received an assessment
Your profit is tracking materially above prior year and the automatic VPB assessment is too low
You are a DGA planning a dividend distribution and want to spread the box 2 IB cost
You had no taxable income last year, a new business or a career break, so no assessment was auto-generated
Increase your existing voorlopige aanslag when:
Revenue is tracking significantly above prior year in Q1 or Q2
A one-off large project or asset sale will push annual profit above the prior year figure
For VPB specifically: wijzigingen remain, and Q3 figures confirm a stronger-than-forecast year
Reduce your existing voorlopige aanslag when:
Revenue has dropped significantly due to client loss, illness, or a market change
A major investment reduces taxable profit below the prior year base
For IB specifically: parental leave, sabbatical, or business wind-down reduces full-year income
Leave it unchanged when:
Current-year figures are tracking closely to prior year and the assessment is already accurate
The profit deviation is small enough that potential belastingrente would be immaterial anyway
It is late Q4 and the remaining instalment period is too short to justify the change
For VPB specifically, the two most valuable moments to review the assessment are right when it arrives in January, and again once Q2 results are available. By that second point you have six months of real data to work with and, if you have been disciplined about it, still two wijzigingen in reserve for whatever the second half of the year brings.
None of this requires a formal forecasting exercise. A quick comparison between your year-to-date profit and the prior-year figure the assessment was built on is usually enough to tell you whether a change is worth making, and the same underlying figures that drive this decision, revenue, cost base, and margin, are exactly what feed into the broader profitability picture covered in annual accounts Netherlands, where profit and equity turn into the ratios that show how the business is actually performing rather than just what it owes.
How to Request or Change a Voorlopige Aanslag, Step by Step
The process runs entirely digitally through the Belastingdienst portals, with no paper forms required in the overwhelming majority of cases. The main practical difference between IB and VPB is simply which portal you use and how you log in.
For IB (inkomstenbelasting):
Log in to Mijn Belastingdienst at mijn.belastingdienst.nl using DigiD.
Navigate to "Inkomstenbelasting" and select "Verzoek voorlopige aanslag" or "Wijzig voorlopige aanslag."
Enter your estimated income for the current year across box 1 (business profit, salary), box 2 (dividend, if applicable), box 3 (savings and investments), and your ZVW contribution base.
The system calculates estimated IB automatically and generates a revised monthly instalment schedule.
Confirm the request. A new aanslag is issued within 8 weeks, showing your revised monthly amounts.
For VPB (vennootschapsbelasting):
Log in to Mijn Belastingdienst Zakelijk via "Inloggen voor ondernemers" using eHerkenning, minimum level 2+.
Locate the current voorlopige aanslag VPB for the relevant year.
Fill in the wijzigingsformulier with your updated taxable profit estimate for the year.
Submit the request; note that this counts as one of the 3 maximum changes allowed per year, so it is worth making sure your estimate is reasonably solid before spending one of them.
Within 8 weeks, you will receive either a revised aanslag, meaning the change was accepted, or an afwijkingsbeschikking, meaning it was rejected or partially rejected.
If rejected: the afwijkingsbeschikking itself can be contested, and the existing assessment remains in force while that dispute is resolved.
Watch out: A wijzigingsverzoek is not the same thing as a bezwaar. You cannot make bezwaar against a voorlopige aanslag directly, only against a definitieve aanslag or an afwijkingsbeschikking. Keep these two procedures, and their very different deadlines, separate in your own administration so you do not miss one while focused on the other.
Getting this sequence right consistently, rather than reacting to it once a year, is exactly the kind of recurring task that benefits from professional oversight; see accountant or bookkeeper for how that support typically fits around your own bookkeeping.
Get Your Provisional Assessment Working for Your Cash Flow, Not Against It
The voorlopige aanslag is one of the few genuinely low-effort tools in the Dutch tax system: a five-minute online request can turn a large, unpredictable autumn tax bill into predictable monthly payments, and in most cases eliminate belastingrente entirely along the way. The businesses that get caught out are almost never trying to avoid tax; they simply never revisited an assessment that was quietly based on two-year-old figures.
If you want help checking whether your current voorlopige aanslag actually reflects how 2026 is tracking, or setting up a review point before the May and June deadlines each year, book a demo and we will look at your situation together. If you are earlier in the process of setting up your business, our team can also help you incorporate your BV or get your bookkeeping and payroll running correctly so this kind of review becomes routine rather than an annual scramble.
FAQs
What is a voorlopige aanslag in the Netherlands?
A voorlopige aanslag is a provisional estimate of the income tax (IB) or corporate tax (VPB) you owe for the current year, based mainly on prior-year figures, collected in monthly instalments rather than as a single year-end payment.
Is the voorlopige aanslag the same as my final tax bill?
No. It is an estimate. The definitieve aanslag, issued after your actual aangifte is filed and processed, is the real settlement; you either receive a refund or pay the remaining difference at that point.
Do I automatically receive a voorlopige aanslag as a Dutch entrepreneur?
Most BVs receive one automatically for VPB in January, based on prior-year figures. IB assessments for sole traders, ZZP, and DGAs personally are not always issued automatically and often need to be requested directly.
What is the deadline to avoid belastingrente on my 2025 IB assessment?
Request a voorlopige aanslag, or file your full IB aangifte, before 1 May 2026 to avoid belastingrente on the 2025 assessment.
What is the VPB voorlopige aanslag deadline for 2025?
Request or adjust the voorlopige aanslag VPB before 1 May 2026, or file the full VPB aangifte before 1 June 2026, to avoid belastingrente on the 2025 assessment.
What is the belastingrente rate in 2026?
The belastingrente rate for both IB and VPB in 2026 is 5% per year, applied from 1 July 2026 on the underpaid balance of any assessment dated on or after that date.
How many times can I change my VPB voorlopige aanslag per year?
A maximum of 3 times per year through Mijn Belastingdienst Zakelijk. There is no equivalent limit on IB changes, which can be adjusted as often as needed through Mijn Belastingdienst.
What happens if my provisional assessment was too low?
You will owe the shortfall once the definitieve aanslag is issued, and belastingrente of 5% accrues on that underpaid balance from 1 July 2026 until the final assessment date, unless you corrected the estimate before the relevant deadline.
Can I make bezwaar against a voorlopige aanslag?
No. A voorlopige aanslag can only be changed through a wijzigingsverzoek, not contested through bezwaar. Formal bezwaar is only available against a definitieve aanslag, or against an afwijkingsbeschikking if a change request is rejected.
How does the voorlopige aanslag work for a DGA receiving dividends?
A DGA planning a dividend distribution can request or adjust a voorlopige aanslag IB specifically to cover the resulting box 2 tax, spreading that liability across monthly instalments rather than facing it as one large payment after the annual aangifte is filed.
Written by
Nick Knuppe
CEO & Founder
