ZZP-er with declining urencriterium — lose zelfstandigenaftrek mid-year?
ZZP client worked full-time freelance in 2024. in 2025 he started a part-time employee job (24 hours/week) in July but continues his freelance business. tracked hours show he'll land at ~1,100 hours for 2025 — below the 1,225 urencriterium threshold.
consequence: no zelfstandigenaftrek (€2,470 for 2025) and no MKB-winstvrijstelling boost. also no startersaftrek if he was using it.
question: does the urencriterium apply on a calendar-year basis only, or is there any proration for year of transition? my reading of article 3.6 Wet IB 2001 says no proration — it's all-or-nothing at 1,225 hours.
this is going to cost him ~€1,200 in tax. want to make sure i'm not missing a nuance.
2 replies
self-answering — article 3.6 is binary. 1,225 or nothing. no proration.
BUT: there's also the 50% rule — at least 50% of working time in the business. if he's doing 24h/week employed + freelance hours, he needs to be freelancing more than 24h/week to meet that. at 1,100 hours annual that's ~21 hours/week which fails the 50% rule ANYWAY.
so it's the 50% test that bites first in his case. tell him that's the variable to focus on if he wants to preserve the aftrek in 2026.
uk has the "trading allowance" which is simpler — £1k flat regardless of hours. easier to explain to clients than the NL urencriterium which is basically a time clock for freelancers.
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