Your quote is almost ready. The shoot is on there, so are the files, and your client wants a photobook too. Just the VAT to sort out. You know the usual rules on VAT for photographers, at least for the shoot. But the book? Charging 21% on everything would keep things simple. It would also be wrong.
A photobook attracts 9% VAT in the Netherlands, even if you’re making it for just one client. A book of wedding photos, for example. You don’t need a publisher or a whole print run. One book counts too.
That’s the sort of detail you want to know before sending your quote. It’s why I’ve made a free VAT calculator for photographers. Choose what you’re selling, enter an amount and you’ll see the figures excluding and including VAT straight away. There’s a short explanation too, because a percentage on its own only tells you so much.
The calculator and this article are tools to help you, not financial or tax advice. If you’re unsure about your situation, ask your accountant or the Dutch Tax Administration (Belastingdienst). In Belgium, ask FOD Financiën, the Belgian tax authority. I find a calculator useful, but it hasn’t seen your accounts.
VAT for photographers: 21% for the shoot, 9% for the photobook
In the Netherlands, the standard VAT rate is 21%. The 9% rate applies to books, including photobooks, while the calculator uses 0% for reverse charges and business clients abroad. Almost everything photographers sell falls under 21%.
A photo session for a private client, a corporate shoot, wedding photography with digital files: all 21%. The same goes for individual prints and image licences or usage rights.
You also charge 21% when your client is a business in the Netherlands. Being a business doesn’t change the rate. A business client abroad is a different matter. I’ll come to that shortly.
The photobook is the exception that’s easy to miss. To qualify for 9%, it needs to be recognisable as a book. Its size, content and binding all count. It doesn’t need an ISBN, and the number of copies doesn’t matter. A one-off book of photos from a shoot qualifies for 9% as long as it’s recognisable as a book.
That includes an album you stick the photos into yourself. Sell an empty photo album or scrapbook, though, and it’s 21%. An individual photo print is still 21% too. What you actually deliver makes a difference.
So a wedding photography quote covering digital files and a photobook involves two rates: 21% for the photography and files, and 9% for the book. Select the item you want to calculate in the tool. Putting the whole amount under wedding photography misses that distinction.
VAT for photographers with clients abroad
First, check whether your client is a business or a private individual. A business in another EU country and a private client in that same country can be treated differently.
If you provide a photography service to a business client in another EU country, the reverse charge applies. You don’t charge Dutch VAT. Put ‘BTW verlegd’, the reverse-charge note, and your client’s VAT number on the invoice. Report the service in box 3b of your VAT return and in the Opgaaf ICP (EC sales list).
For a business client outside the EU, you don’t charge Dutch VAT either. The service is taxable in the client’s country, and you leave it out of your Dutch VAT return. The calculator uses 0% for both options, but the reporting requirements are different.
A photo session for a private client usually still attracts 21% Dutch VAT. That also applies if the client lives outside the Netherlands, whether inside or outside the EU. A foreign address alone isn’t a reason to leave VAT off the invoice.
You may have come across the OSS scheme and its €10,000 threshold. That threshold applies to goods you send to private customers in other EU countries, such as prints, and to automatically supplied digital services. It doesn’t apply to a photo session. When choosing an option in the calculator, keep in mind what you’re actually selling and who’s buying it.
The KOR: less paperwork, but do the sums
The KOR (Small Business Scheme) is available if your annual revenue is below €20,000. If you join, you don’t charge your clients VAT and generally don’t have to submit VAT returns. Less paperwork.
There is a trade-off: you can’t reclaim VAT on your purchases either. That includes cameras and lenses. If you’re planning an expensive purchase, that needs to be part of your decision.
Knowing you’re below the revenue threshold doesn’t tell you whether the KOR makes sense for you. You can ask your accountant to compare both options.
Apply at least four weeks before your intended start date. You join at the beginning of a quarter. If you exceed the revenue threshold during the year, you must leave the scheme immediately. You then can’t rejoin for the rest of that year or the following year.
In the calculator, tick ‘Small Business Scheme, revenue below €20,000/year’. The tool calculates without VAT and shows the line for your invoice: ‘Exempt under the Dutch Small Business Scheme (KOR)’. Ticking the box applies the exemption to the calculation. You still need to register for the scheme yourself.
Workshops and CRKBO
A photography workshop or course normally attracts 21% VAT. Even if your participants learn a lot. That might sound a bit unkind, but what we call education in everyday conversation doesn’t automatically qualify for a VAT exemption.
The CRKBO exemption concerns vocational education. Having a CRKBO registration doesn’t make a hobby course exempt. The content and purpose of the teaching still determine whether it qualifies. You can’t simply stop charging VAT on all your workshops once you’re registered.
Joining the Register Instellingen (register of institutions) also costs money, including an initial audit. There are annual fees after that, and another audit after four years. Include those in your calculations. Registration is something to look into if you provide vocational training. It isn’t a general VAT exemption for anyone who occasionally explains how photography works.
That’s why the calculator lists a workshop or course without CRKBO separately from vocational training with CRKBO. Choose the option that matches what you offer. If you’re unsure whether your course qualifies as vocational education, check with your accountant or the Belastingdienst before applying the exemption.
The rules if you work in Belgium
The calculator has a Belgian version too. The standard VAT rate is 21%. For business clients in other EU countries, the reverse charge applies. Report these services in box 44 and the EC sales list. For business clients outside the EU, you charge no Belgian VAT (0%) and use box 47.
Belgium also has the KMO exemption scheme, its small business exemption, with an annual revenue threshold of €25,000 in 2026. Apply using form 604A when starting your business, or form 604B. If you exceed the threshold by no more than 10%, you keep the exemption until the end of the year. Exceed it by more than that and the normal rules apply immediately.
Tick the KMO exemption option and the tool calculates without VAT, showing this invoice line: ‘Special exemption scheme for small enterprises’.
Workshops normally attract 21%. The exemption under article 44 covers school or university education, vocational training by recognised institutions and private tuition by teachers. Hobby workshops don’t qualify. Here too, ‘I teach’ isn’t enough on its own to invoice without VAT.
How to use the calculator
Start with your own country: Netherlands or Belgium. Then choose what you’re selling from the list. Below your selection, you’ll find a short explanation of why that rate applies. Useful if you came for the photobook and want to double-check.
Enter your amount and select whether it excludes or includes VAT. You’ll immediately see ‘Excl. VAT’, ‘VAT’ and ‘Incl. VAT’. Each amount has its own copy button, so you can copy it into your quote or invoice.
Still working out what to charge? There’s a link below the amount field to the price calculator, which is part of paid Premium. Work out your fee first, then calculate the VAT. Those are two separate questions.
Below the calculator, you’ll find further explanations of the rates and exceptions for each country. The VAT calculator is free, needs no account and is available in Dutch and English.
Open the VAT calculator with your quote beside you. Then you can add that photobook, with the right percentage.