FAQ how do I get paid after my performance?

Artists always have to check if they should be working under an employment contract. This usually happens if, for example, you work for a certain company or orchestra for a few days a week for more than three months in a row. If not, the Performance Artists' Tax Regime (artiestenregeling) will then apply to you.

Artists who do not work under an employment contract can get paid:

• by making use of model agreements approved by the Tax Office 'artiest individueel' or 'artiestengezelschap' and sending an invoice.
• if an empoyment contract clearly doesn't make sense the artist and the client can put in writing that the artiestenregeling does not apply. The artist can send an invoice.
• by payrolling using the Performance Artists' Tax Regime (artiestenregeling ).

Until May 1st 2016 the following applied: If you didn't have a Working Relationship Declaration - Profit from Enterpise (VAR-wuo) as a performing artist, you had to go through freelance payrolling. As an artist or musician, the Performance Artists' Tax Regime (artiestenregeling) applied to you.

Every time you perform and are paid in accordance with the Performance Artists' Tax Regime, you must fill in a total fee statement form. On this form you also state if the so-called facility for minor allowances may be applied, the kostenvergoedingsbeschikking or the kleinevergoedingsregeling. These facilities ensure that you still retain (most of) your earning The client must have this statement before he can pay you, so always take it filled in and signed when you go to do a performance.

Incidental Expenses Allowance Scheme (Kleine vergoedingsregeling, kvr): For artists who earn a maximum of €163 per performance 

Every artist can be paid a maximum fee of €163 per performance without deductions being made for social insurance or income tax. You must indicate on the total fee statement form that you wish to make use of this facility. If the total fee agreed upon is more than € 163, the difference must be payrolled in accordance with the Performance Artists' Tax Regime.

The Expenses Exemption Ruling (Kostenvergoedingsbeschikking, kvb): For artists whose costs are more than €163 per performance 

If your costs per performance are higher than the limit allowed by the Incidental Expenses Allowance Scheme, you can apply as an individual or a group to the Tax Office before the performance or a series of performances for application of the Expenses Exemption Ruling. In making such an application you must state clearly what your costs normally are and divide that amount over the estimated number of performances. In the cost deduction ruling, the inspector states the total general costs allowed per performance. A copy of the ruling must be appended to the total fee statement form for the employer, so that he or the payrolling agency knows that that total of general costs can be applied.

The Incidental Expenses Allowance Scheme and the Expenses Exemption Ruling cannot both be applied at the same time. 

It is not a miraculous device to keep as much as possible of the fee free of tax! When you declare your income for tax purposes, you must indicate the compensation for expenses that you have received as income. If your actual expenses are lower, you pay tax over the difference.

Compensation for travel and accommodation expenses need not be taxed. That does not have to be stated on the total fee statement form either. Compensation, or allowances if the client pays these expenses directly, for travel and accommodation expenses remain untaxed at the request of the artist. An exception is made for compensation for the expenses of the artist’s own means of transport, such as the expenses of travelling in the artist’s own car. This compensation is taxed, but you can include it in the Incidental Expenses Allowance Scheme and the Expenses Exemption Ruling.

If you do not send invoices as an artist and your income is higher than the limit of the facilities mentioned above, you must have the fees that you receive for a performance payrolled in accordance with the Performance Artists' Tax Regime. In that case you must fill in the income from performances on the declaration of your income for tax purposes under the category ‘result from other activities’. You can deduct the professional expenses for income tax, but you are not a freelance and cannot issue invoices.

If you play in a band or perform in a company, you can send invoices as a group if you have a liability for deductions statement. That means that you have to pay income tax and employees’ contributions as a group. Then for example the profit can be divided among the permanent members of the band at the end of the year.