The urencriterium of 1,225 hours: do you reach it, and how do you prove it

What exactly is the urencriterium?

A condition from income tax (Article 3.6 of the Dutch Income Tax Act, Wet IB 2001) for a number of schemes that are meant only for real entrepreneurs. These are the zelfstandigenaftrek, the startersaftrek, the meewerkaftrek (the deduction for a partner who works along in the business) and the oudedagsreserve (an old-age reserve) that once existed. The core is a number of hours: in a calendar year you spend at least 1,225 hours on your business or businesses combined. For a full year that comes to about 25 hours a week over 49 working weeks, or almost 24 over 52.

It is about hours in the calendar year, regardless of when you started. If you start in September, you also have to reach 1,225 hours in the months up to and including December to meet the criterion for that year; the number is not reduced pro rata. That is why many starters just miss it in the first year and meet it in the second.

The criterion says nothing about your turnover or your profit. You can meet it with a loss and fail it in a good year. It measures time, and only time. The term urencriterium on this site gives the definition and where to find it in the law.

• At least 1,225 hours per calendar year on your business; Article 3.6 of the Wet IB 2001.
• About 25 hours a week; not pro rata if you start partway through the year.
• Measures time, not turnover or profit.

What is the second condition, and who does it not apply to?

You must spend more time on your business than on other work, for example in employment. This is called the grotendeelscriterium: of all your working time, the largest part goes to the business. If you work 32 hours a week in employment, you must spend more than 32 hours a week on your business to meet this condition, and that comes to a working week of over 64 hours. For most people with a job, this is the condition that makes it impossible, not the 1,225 hours themselves.

The exception is for starters. If you were not an entrepreneur in one of the five preceding calendar years, you do not have to meet the second condition, only the first. So if you start alongside a job, you can get the deduction in the first years with 1,225 hours on the business, even if you work more hours in employment. After that the second condition starts to apply, and then comes the moment to choose.

The article on the zelfstandigenaftrek alongside a job works this out with an ordinary working week, and shows what you do get as an entrepreneur without meeting the criterion.

• More time on the business than on other work: the grotendeelscriterium.
• Alongside a 32-hour job, that means over 64 hours a week in total.
• Exception: not an entrepreneur in one of the five preceding years, then only the 1,225 hours apply.

Which hours count?

All hours you spend on the business, and that is broader than the hours you invoice to a client. The Belastingdienst (the Dutch tax authority) itself mentions making quotes, keeping your bookkeeping and making your business website. These also belong: finding clients and holding conversations, keeping up with your field, taking courses related to the business, and travel time for the business. And building and improving your product, plus the time you spend on hosting, domain and everything else that comes after the cliff.

For a maker with an AI project, that is good news: the evenings in which you build, test and improve are hours for the business, even if there is no client paying for them yet. The condition is that the work is for the business, not that it already earns money.

So direct and indirect hours both count. The distinction the Belastingdienst makes is not between paid and unpaid, but between working and being available.

• Quotes, bookkeeping, your website: the Belastingdienst names them itself.
• Also: acquisition, training for the business, travel time, building and improving.
• The criterion is work for the business, not paid work.

Which hours do not count?

Hours in which you were available for the business but did no work. The Belastingdienst says it literally: sometimes you are available but do nothing, and those hours do not count. A shop that is open without a customer is the classic example. For a maker it is the day you were ready for a meeting that did not go ahead, or the hours in which your project ran without you working on it.

Also not: hours for work in employment (those count on the other side, for the grotendeelscriterium), hours for a hobby that is not a business, and hours you cannot make plausible. That last one is the largest category in practice: hours you did work but never recorded anywhere do not exist for the Belastingdienst.

Be honest in the borderline cases. An hour on social media that was half about your business is not an hour for the business. If you stretch your records, you stand weak at the moment it matters, and the deduction is not large enough to be worth that risk.

• Being available without working does not count.
• Employment and hobby do not count; unrecorded hours do not exist.
• Honest in the borderline cases; stretching does not pay.

How do you make it plausible?

With a record of your hours, backed by what you already have. The Belastingdienst gives your calendar, quotes, timesheets and invoices as examples. It is not about a mandatory form but about making it plausible: if a question comes, you must be able to show when you did what, and the documents must support that story. A calendar with appointments, a list of quotes sent, the dated commits in your version control, the invoices with a period on them: together they form a story that holds up.

Record the hours on the day itself or the day after, per activity, with a few words about what you did. Reconstructing a year afterwards is exactly what an inspector distrusts, and rightly so. A simple list with date, hours and description is enough, as long as it is consistent with the rest of your bookkeeping.

And keep it. The record of your hours is part of your bookkeeping and falls under the seven-year retention obligation, because it supports a deduction in your tax return.

• Calendar, quotes, timesheets, invoices: the examples of the Belastingdienst.
• Record on the day itself, per activity, with a description.
• Keep for seven years, as part of your bookkeeping.

What applies during pregnancy and incapacity for work?

If you interrupt your work as an entrepreneur because of pregnancy, the hours not worked over a total of sixteen weeks still count as hours worked. You then calculate what you would normally have spent on the business in those weeks, and add that. That way a pregnancy does not cost you the deduction for that year.

For incapacity for work there is a reduced urencriterium. If you as an entrepreneur spend at least 800 hours on your business, you meet the reduced criterion. It belongs to the startersaftrek bij arbeidsongeschiktheid (the starter deduction for entrepreneurs with an incapacity for work). The conditions for it are on the page of the Belastingdienst about the urencriterium, and they are specific enough to read them there instead of summarising them here.

Both schemes exist because otherwise the criterion would punish people for something that was not a choice. If you are in one of these situations, read the conditions at the source and record how you calculated the hours.

• Pregnancy: hours not worked over sixteen weeks count.
• Incapacity for work: a reduced criterion of 800 hours, with the startersaftrek bij arbeidsongeschiktheid.
• The conditions are at the Belastingdienst; record your calculation.

How do you keep track as a maker?

Link the hours to what you already do. If you build with an AI, you have a trail of commits with date and time, a list of conversations with the model, a calendar with appointments. That is not a record of hours, but it is the evidence that supports one. Write down per day how many hours you worked on the project and on what, and let the trails do the rest.

Count per project and per type of work, so you can later see where the time went: building, clients, bookkeeping, learning. That helps not only with the criterion but also with the question of whether the project is worth the time. The administration in basestep has a record of hours per project, with a counter towards the 1,225 hours and a second check if you have a job alongside. Hours without a client project cannot go in there yet, and it says so honestly.

And check every quarter where you stand. If you see in October that you are at 900 hours, you know it will not work out this year, and you can set up your tax return accordingly instead of being disappointed in March. The criterion is strict, but it is not unpredictable.

• Note it down per day, with the commits and the calendar as support.
• Count per project and per type of work.
• Check every quarter where you stand; October is the moment to know.

Sources

Checked on 5 September 2026. The conditions come literally from the Belastingdienst; the legal basis is in the term urencriterium on this site.

• Belastingdienst, conditions of the urencriterium
• Belastingdienst, zelfstandigenaftrek 2026

Further reading

Three places that connect to this.