Preparing your VAT quarter
Four times a year, the same evening: the form open in one tab while you hunt down your turnover. Filling it in takes ten minutes; working out which amount goes in which box takes the rest. Below is what belongs in the boxes, where those amounts come from, and what you have to check yourself.
What goes in which box
The Dutch VAT return starts with four boxes for your turnover and ends with three for the balance. These are they, with the description used on the form:
| Box | What belongs in it |
|---|---|
| 1a | Supplies and services taxed at the high rate — currently 21%. |
| 1b | Supplies and services taxed at the low rate — currently 9%. |
| 1c | Supplies and services taxed at other rates, except 0%. |
| 1e | Supplies and services taxed at 0% or not taxed at your end: zero rate and reverse charge. |
| 5a | VAT payable — the total of the VAT from the boxes above. |
| 5b | Input VAT: the VAT on your purchases and costs that you may deduct. |
| 5c | To pay or to reclaim: 5a minus 5b. |
For most freelancers 1a takes almost everything and 1b and 1c stay empty. Work for a business client abroad, or reverse-charge the VAT, and 1e is where that lands — which also brings an EC sales list with it, and that falls outside this page.
Where the amounts come from
Freeliq knows two sources and always uses exactly one. If you have a bookkeeping integration — Moneybird or Exact Online — the figures come from there and that source wins, even when your own invoices say something else. Without that integration they come from your own invoices in Freeliq.
Never both at once: two truths about the same amount is one too many. So the sheet says which source filled it, and you never have to guess where a number came from. The screen and the button are the same either way.
That precedence is not a technical detail but the boundary of the product. Your bookkeeping is the source of truth about money; Freeliq is the source of truth about your hours. The moment the two disagree about an invoice, the bookkeeping wins.
What Freeliq does not know — and says so
A preparation that quietly pretends to be complete is more dangerous than no preparation at all. On five points Freeliq therefore puts a warning on the sheet instead of a number:
- Input VAT without an integration. Without a bookkeeping integration Freeliq does not know your purchase invoices. Box 5b then reads unknown rather than zero, and 5c stays empty — because 5a minus a placeholder zero is not a balance, it is your VAT payable with a different label on it.
- Invoices whose rate cannot be derived. A bookkeeping integration hands over amounts, not percentages. With two rates on one invoice the derived percentage matches no Dutch rate at all. Such an invoice gets its own “cannot be classified” line: the VAT still counts towards 5a, you pick the box yourself.
- Margin scheme. A margin invoice carries no VAT, yet VAT is due over the profit margin. That amount is listed separately, with a note that it belongs in 1a with the margin as turnover. Freeliq deliberately does not compute that base: under the globalisation method negative margins carry over into the next quarter.
- Exempt turnover. It sits outside the boxes, with an explanation. Exempt turnover is not taxed, whereas 1e is about turnover that is taxed (at 0%) or taxed at your customer's end. Lumping them together puts turnover in a box where the tax authority does not expect it.
- Invoices that live elsewhere. If invoices sit in a bookkeeping system that is not connected, Freeliq does not count them and says how many there are. A visible gap beats a tidy total that is wrong.
And if you are under the Dutch small-business scheme (KOR) or your work is exempt, you do not file a VAT return at all. Freeliq then does not show four empty boxes — that would suggest the opposite — but simply says there is nothing to prepare.
The sheet itself
You pick a year and a quarter and get one sheet with the boxes, the amounts and the source above them. You can look back up to seven years — the Dutch retention period does not go further, and neither does the source data.
There is a print button on it. That sounds old-fashioned and is exactly the point: you fill in the tax authority's form in another tab, and one sheet beside your keyboard beats clicking back and forth. On paper the picker and the button drop away, because a button on paper does nothing.
Preparation, not the return
The screen says so itself, and it always says so — even when every figure comes from your bookkeeping: this is a preparation, not a return. Freeliq sends nothing on and checks nothing. You copy the amounts over and check them before you file.
You file with the tax authority, and whether the amounts are right stays your responsibility — or your accountant's. Freeliq is a time-tracking tool that knows your invoices, not an accounting package. That boundary has to stay visible, because a tool that acts as though your return is done is a tool whose omissions you discover too late.
Frequently asked questions
Does Freeliq file my VAT return?
No. Freeliq lays out the amounts per box so you can copy them over. Nothing goes to the tax authority and nothing is checked; filling in and filing is yours to do.
Do I need a bookkeeping integration for this?
No. Without one the figures are built from your own invoices in Freeliq. What you miss is the input VAT: with no purchase administration Freeliq does not know your costs, so 5b reads unknown and 5c stays empty.
What if my bookkeeping says something other than Freeliq?
Then the bookkeeping wins, and that is what the sheet shows: with an integration in place every amount comes from there, and Freeliq does not count its own invoices separately. Your bookkeeping is the source of truth about money.
Can I look back at an older quarter?
Yes, up to seven years — the same term as the Dutch retention obligation. You pick year and quarter above the sheet; it is rebuilt from the source each time, not from a stored copy.
Do my hours count towards this?
Only through your invoices. Hours become turnover once they are invoiced, so anything still sitting on a timesheet does not appear here. How you get from hours to invoice is on invoicing hours (in Dutch).