Advance report (voorlopige aanslag)

And then again the end of the year crept up and the terrible word advance report loomed on our horizon. But is it all that scary? Not really. Everything is quite simple and straightforward, the main thing is not to forget that the system of advance payments is very widespread in the Netherlands and that we ourselves can influence the amounts that end up there.

So what is an advance statement (voorlopige aanslag)?
Two options are possible (or rather, there are two documents that are so called and must be distinguished):

1. Payments (for example, taxes) or receipt of money (subsidies or tax refunds) for a future or current year, (that is, for a period that has not yet ended, and for which the filing time has not yet come). The advance report is calculated automatically upon your request. Nobody checks the correspondence of the figures to reality (except you). This means that if you have not submitted any data yourself, the system uses data from two years ago. Therefore, it is very important to bring all the numbers in line with what actually is.

2. Preliminary calculation of the tax return for the last year, which is also done automatically. This is necessary so that people can quickly pay taxes, and not wait for the final calculation, and in 90% of cases the amount of the final calculation coincides with the one you received in the preliminary one.

Here we will take a closer look at the first option.

A short introduction or where the legs grow from:

In the Netherlands, the system works in such a way that your taxes, electricity bills, subsidies and so on are finally settled at the end of the calendar year. That is, everything that is due to you you will receive, and everything that you have to pay will be asked of you at that very moment. However, the amounts there can be quite large, so for convenience there is the possibility of monthly payment or receiving money from the state. It is the preliminary calculation of these amounts that is called an advance statement (voorlopige aanslag). This is convenient in order not to find yourself in a difficult situation at the end of the year. However, you must keep track of this yourself. And the more accurate calculation you make at the beginning of the year, the fewer unpleasant surprises await you at the end.

Therefore, it is highly recommended at the beginning of the year to take care to stop all payments that you are no longer entitled to, to request those that are due or to change the size of these payments.

The opportunity to submit an advance report (voorlopige aanslag) for 2019 is now open, and if you want to receive money or pay taxes on a monthly basis, then it is best to have time to submit it in early December. Since on December 20, the first payment for January will already be made (in the event that you receive something).

- Can I submit an advance report later?
You can, just the annual amount will be divided by the remaining months of the current year, and payments will begin from the next month. You can even file an advance report for 2018 now, in which case the amount will be paid in a lump sum.

- Who should pay special attention to this?
Those who have undergone (or are expected to) major changes in their lives, such as buying a house (or switching from a large interest on a mortgage to a small one). How does this affect the expense report? If the house was purchased in 2018, then most likely at the same time a request for a return was submitted for it, however, when calculating the amount, the purchase costs (such as a mortgage consultant, registration, etc.) were taken into account, among other things. In 2019, these costs will no longer exist, which means that you are entitled to less tax refunds. Since the advance report is generated automatically, then by the end of the year, when filing the declaration, you may be unpleasantly surprised by the need to return part of the paid (and already spent money), and even with the payment of rent (interest).

What other changes might affect the numbers on your expense report?

• The birth of a child, or vice versa, when an already existing child reaches 18 years old, especially when it comes to single parents;
• You have reached retirement age;
• Your arrival in the Netherlands in 2018, since in this case in 2018 you worked only part of the year, and in 2019 you will already work for a whole year;
• A strong change in income (loss of a job or, on the contrary, the appearance of a second, change of work with a change in income);
• The planned exit of a non-working partner to work (even if this exit is planned only in August 2019). You will still receive a tax refund at the end of the year, after submitting the final declaration, but you will not have to return part of the money back. Therefore, it is better to stop this payment in advance;
• The appearance of a non-working partner in 2018 (he must also be your fiscal partner and have been your partner for more than 6 months). Now it makes no sense to submit a report for 2018. So it is better to wait for March or leave us today an application for filing tax returns in 2018. If in 2018 you were not entitled to anything, but in 2019 it will be, then you can apply now to receive money monthly, the amounts are small per year less than 1000 euros, which means you will receive about 70-80 euros per month. Or, on the contrary, you can get it one-time next year and use it for some big purchase or a vacation trip.

Separately, it is necessary to highlight private entrepreneurs who pay their own taxes (since they are not automatically deducted from their salaries). If you plan to generate a lot of income in 2019, this means you will have to pay significant taxes. If you submit an advance report correctly, you can pay them gradually, and at the end of the year you can only pay the difference or even get something back. This is also important because the rent has now increased, which means that it will be less profitable to pay taxes on a deferred basis, you will have to pay a significant percentage. Therefore, do not ignore letters from the tax office, but set up your payments now! And we will be happy to help you with this.

At the same time, you can change the advance report as many times as you like throughout the year, at least every month.

– What else does the advance report affect?
It affects subsidies. If income has increased, then you may no longer be eligible for any of them. And vice versa, if it has gone down, then you can ask yourself some.

Now the tax office will send out advance reports automatically compiled on the basis of 2017 data, recall that they have nothing to do with reality. There may be many inconsistencies, so everything needs to be checked.

- Can I submit an advance report myself on the tax website?
Yes. In fact, this is just a preliminary filing of a tax return.

- What if you don't change anything there?
Everything will remain as it was, but at the end of the year there will be a recalculation according to real figures. You may have to return something or pay extra.

If you have already received a letter from the tax office, but are not sure what it is, scan this letter from both sides and send it to us, we will help you figure it out.

We can submit an advance report for you, according to the data you provided. It will cost between 45 and 80 euros.

You can also independently figure out whether this letter is or not. If voorlopige aanslag 2019 is written on the top right, this is the same advance report for next year. The same goes for subsidies - take a close look at the year! And remember, their calculation is also based on 2017 data.

So, requesting, changing or stopping payments is the top priority of the end of November - beginning of December 2018!