The kleineondernemersregeling (KOR): when it fits and when it does not

What is the kleineondernemersregeling (KOR)?

A VAT exemption for entrepreneurs with a small turnover. If you take part, you charge your customers no VAT and so pay no VAT over either, and you put no VAT on your invoices. You also no longer file a VAT return, and you do not deduct the VAT on your business costs and investments. The conditions: you are an entrepreneur for VAT, you are established in the Netherlands, and your turnover is no more than €20,000 per calendar year.

That turnover is your total turnover in the Netherlands: all supplies and services that would be taxed with Dutch VAT, plus certain exempt turnover. What you turn over abroad does not count for this limit. For that, since 1 January 2025, there are separate rules in the form of the EU-KOR (the EU version of the scheme), which lets you apply the scheme in other EU countries as well.

The scheme is a choice. If you do not choose it, you are an ordinary VAT entrepreneur with a return every quarter, even with a turnover of a few hundred euros. If you do choose it, you remain an entrepreneur, but for VAT you are outside the system. The term kleineondernemersregeling on this site gives the definition and where to find it in the law.

• No VAT charged, no return, no deduction; under €20,000 turnover a year.
• Turnover in the Netherlands counts; for abroad there has been the EU-KOR since 2025.
• A choice, not an obligation.

What do you gain from it?

Time and, if you supply private customers, a lower price or a higher margin. The time is clear: no return every quarter, no VAT on every invoice, no collecting receipts for the input VAT. For a maker who starts small alongside a job, that is a real burden that falls away.

The price is the second gain, but only with private customers. A private customer cannot reclaim the VAT they pay; for them a price of €100 including VAT is simply €100. If you charge no VAT, you can ask the same amount and keep all of it, or ask a lower price and keep as much as a competitor who does charge VAT. At a rate of 21% that is a difference that matters.

For businesses as customers that gain does not apply. A business deducts the VAT it pays, so for a business your invoice without VAT is not cheaper than an invoice with VAT. And you do lose something, as the next question shows.

• Time: no return, no VAT on invoices, no receipts for input VAT.
• Price: with private customers you keep more or you are cheaper.
• With businesses as customers there is no price advantage.

What do you lose with it?

The deduction of input VAT. All the VAT you pay yourself on business costs and investments, you can no longer reclaim: the laptop, the software, the hosting, the bookkeeper, the phone. At a rate of 21%, that means every business expense is a fifth more expensive than for an entrepreneur outside the scheme. If you invest a lot or have high running costs, you can lose more this way than you gain in time and price.

There is another loss that is often forgotten: the VAT you deducted on investments in the years before the scheme. When you join the scheme, a correction (herziening) of that deduction may follow for business assets whose correction period is still running; below a threshold of €500 per year, that correction is not made. The term kleineondernemersregeling describes that threshold.

And you lose some of your flexibility. If you leave voluntarily, you cannot join again for the rest of that calendar year and the whole year after. That makes the choice something to think about, not something to switch every quarter.

• No deduction of input VAT: every business expense becomes more expensive.
• Possibly a correction of VAT deducted earlier on investments, above a threshold of €500.
• After leaving voluntarily, a waiting period: the rest of the year and the year after.

Who does it suit, and who does it not?

It suits you if you mainly supply private customers, have few business costs with VAT, and expect to stay well under €20,000. Think of a maker who sells a small subscription to consumers, gives a course to private individuals, or provides a service that mainly takes their time and requires little buying.

It does not suit you if you supply businesses, because there is no price advantage there and you do lose the deduction. It does not suit you if you invest heavily in the first year, because you do not get that VAT back. And it does not suit you if you expect to cross the limit in the current year, because then you have to switch halfway, with all the consequences for your prices and your invoices.

You work out the borderline cases: add up the VAT on your expected business costs for a year, and set that against what you gain in price with private customers and in time. If the difference is small, choose what makes your bookkeeping simplest and what fits where you want to be in two years.

• Yes: private customers, few costs with VAT, well under the limit.
• No: businesses as customers, investments in the first year, growth through the limit in sight.
• In doubt: VAT on costs against price advantage and time, plus where you will be in two years.

How do you sign up?

Through Mijn Belastingdienst Zakelijk (the Dutch tax authority portal for businesses), with a registration that takes effect on the first day of a return period. The Belastingdienst (the Dutch tax authority) needs time to process the registration, so sign up well before the start of the period; the deadline is on the sign-up page of the Belastingdienst. If you want to take part from 1 January, you therefore sign up in the autumn before.

If you are just starting and want to take part straight away, you can indicate that when you start; the Belastingdienst describes the route for starters on the same page. Until your registration is processed, you are an ordinary VAT entrepreneur: you charge VAT and file a return for that period.

As soon as you take part, something changes on your invoices: there is no longer any VAT or VAT amount on them. It is customary to state that you apply the kleineondernemersregeling, so a business customer knows why there is no VAT. The article on what must be on an invoice covers the rest of the requirements, which still apply.

• Mijn Belastingdienst Zakelijk, starting on the first day of a period, well in advance.
• Until it is processed: charge VAT and file returns as usual.
• After that: no VAT on your invoices, with a mention of the scheme.

What happens if you go over the limit?

Then you must leave immediately. As soon as your turnover in a calendar year goes above €20,000, the scheme ends, and from the supply with which you cross the limit, you charge VAT on all your invoices again. That one supply is therefore already subject to VAT, not only the next one. From that moment you also file returns again and may deduct input VAT again.

That makes keeping track of your turnover the most important duty within the scheme. If you do not track your turnover, you discover the overshoot afterwards. Then you have to pay VAT on invoices that had no VAT on them, out of your own pocket or through a correcting invoice to customers who were not expecting it. The administration in basestep watches the limit and tells you when you get close.

After a compulsory exit because you went over the limit, the same waiting period applies as after a voluntary one: for the rest of the calendar year and the year after, you cannot take part again. Growth is therefore a reason to leave the scheme, and the way back is not quick.

• Above €20,000: leave immediately, VAT from the supply that took you over.
• Tracking your turnover is the core duty; finding out afterwards costs money.
• After leaving, a waiting period before you may take part again.

How do you leave, and what is the waiting period?

Through Mijn Belastingdienst Zakelijk; the Belastingdienst no longer processes a paper form. A compulsory exit, because you went over the limit, takes effect immediately. Since 1 January 2025 you can leave voluntarily at any time, with effect from the first day of a return period, and you submit it at least four weeks in advance. The old requirement that you had taken part for at least three years has been dropped.

After you leave, you receive a letter with the final end date. From then on there is a period in which you cannot take part again: the rest of the calendar year in which you left, and the year after. So if you leave in the third quarter of 2026, you can take part again on 1 January 2028 at the earliest. If you end all your business activities and later start a new business, you have the choice again.

The practical lesson: choose well once, and only revisit the choice when your situation really changes, for example when you move from private customers to businesses or the other way round. If you use the scheme as a switch, you run into the waiting period at the very moment you need it.

• Leaving through Mijn Belastingdienst Zakelijk; compulsory with immediate effect, voluntary per period with four weeks of notice.
• Waiting period: the rest of the year and the year after.
• Choose well once; revisit only when your situation changes.

Sources

Checked on 5 September 2026. The limit, the consequences and the waiting period come from the Belastingdienst; the correction threshold of €500 is in the term kleineondernemersregeling on this site, signed off by a tax adviser on 31 August 2026.

• Belastingdienst, what taking part in the KOR means
• Belastingdienst, leaving the KOR

Further reading

Three places that connect to this.