We know that freelancing takes some serious skills, passion and time. That’s why we want to make life easy and provide you with all of the helpful tools needed to be successful.
Here are some of our pro tips on how to bank like a true professional 💪
Automate your VAT 📱
Leave the boring jobs to the machines and focus on doing what you love - growing your business. Did you know VAT can be automated at bunq? Yes, VAT is as easy as 1,2,3. Just set up Auto VAT in your bunq app and always know the exact amount of VAT you owe! You can learn how to set up your Auto VAT right away here.
Keep 30% of your income, for taxes 💳
Of course, income tax obligations differ from business to business. As a freelancer, everything you earn from the services you provide is gross and you must pay income taxes for it. A general way to ensure you have enough money for taxes is to reserve 30% of your business income. With bunq, you can set aside this amount into a separate Bank Account so you have a better overview of your income after tax!
- For our Dutch freelancers 🇳🇱
Take advantage of your allowances. Make the most of time spent on your business. Once you work more than 1225 hours in a year for your company (24h a week), it's possible to receive a tax allowance of up to 46%! In addition, if your turnover does not exceed €20,000 per year, you are exempt from VAT. You can find more information about these and more allowances here
- For our German freelancers 🇩🇪
Take advantage of lower income taxes. Money is an important factor to growing your business. That's why the German government taxes your profits rather than your revenue. You can add up a couple of things as business costs, like rent, internet or travel equipment. The higher your business costs, the lower the net income and tax you will be paying. In addition, if you make less than €22,000 in your first year and less than €50,000 in your second year, you are considered a small business and do not need to charge VAT to your clients! Make sure you keep track of all the receipts with Receipt Scanner and claim your tax deductions effortlessly.
- For our French freelancers 🇫🇷
Take advantage of lower social security payments. Running a small business in France has a lot of advantages. One cool benefit is that you're eligible for a 50% reduction of your social security contributions in the 1st year of starting your business! Invest this money again on whatever helps your dreams grow. In your second year, you’ll only pay 50% of the CFE tax; and that’s not all - there are many other exemptions you can access. Check the eligibility criteria here to see if you qualify.
Learn more about our best kept secrets for bookkeeping here.
