Freelance Personal Trainer in the Netherlands: KVK, VAT

What do you need to sort out to work as a freelance personal trainer in the Netherlands?

As a freelance (zzp) personal trainer in the Netherlands you register with the KVK, the Dutch Chamber of Commerce (a one-off €85.15 in 2026), then receive a VAT ID from the Belastingdienst (the Dutch tax authority), and you usually charge 21% VAT (btw) on stand-alone personal training. Only if you provide the sports space and the equipment yourself can the reduced 9% rate apply. If your turnover stays under €20,000 a year, you can apply for the small business scheme, the KOR (kleineondernemersregeling), and charge no VAT at all.

On top of that you deal with income tax on your profit, with the AVG (the Dutch name for the GDPR) as soon as you record clients' health data, and with the question of which insurance you need. Below you will find the rule for each topic, with the official source. This is general information, not tax or legal advice: your own situation decides what applies to you, so take borderline cases to a bookkeeper or the Belastingdienst.

Step by step: from idea to registered freelancer

KVK registration in practice

The registration itself is not a big project. What I often see with new trainers: they only register after the first clients are already paying. Do it earlier. Without registration you have no VAT ID, and without a VAT ID you cannot send a proper invoice. The €85.15 is a one-off fee and you can book it as a business expense.

When you register, choose a business description that matches what you actually do. Do you mainly train online, or do you also run group sessions in a park? That makes a difference to how you present your services later and how you calculate VAT.

Which VAT rate applies to personal training?

This is where most mistakes happen. The reduced 9% rate for sport has stayed: the planned increase to 21% was reversed by the Wet behoud verlaagd btw-tarief op cultuur, media en sport (the act keeping the reduced VAT rate for culture, media and sport, parliamentary paper 36 814), which came into force on 1 January 2026. But that 9% rate covers giving people the opportunity to actively play sport, not coaching as such.

According to the Belastingdienst, 9% only applies to a sports facility if every condition is met: the client can use the space to exercise, you take care of maintenance, security or cleaning, and you provide the equipment needed. Sports lessons, instruction or coaching that does not come together with making a sports facility available falls under 21%.

Classifying "renting space in a gym" and "own studio" this way is a practical reading of the rule, and Kop van Brabant (secondary source) describes it the same way. If you are unsure, have a bookkeeper confirm it in writing before you publish your prices.

A worked example

Say you want to keep €100 excluding VAT per block of sessions. At 21% you charge the client €121, at 9% it is €109. Private clients look at the price including VAT. If you accidentally post your price excluding VAT on Instagram as the final price, at 21% you only keep €82.64 of every €100.

The small business scheme (KOR): useful or not?

Under the KOR you charge no VAT and file no VAT returns. You can join if you are based in the Netherlands and your turnover does not exceed €20,000 both in the year you join and in the year before. You apply at least 4 weeks before the date you want to start.

The downside: you cannot reclaim the VAT on your own costs. If you buy a lot in your first year, such as kettlebells, a rack, a laptop or a course, it can work out cheaper not to use the KOR yet. For a trainer who mainly trains private clients and invests little, the KOR is often the simple option: your price including VAT becomes your price, full stop.

• Private clients, low investment, turnover well under €20,000: look at the KOR.
• Lots of purchases in your first year: run the numbers, because you lose the VAT refund.
• Turnover growing fast towards €20,000: keep an eye on it, because above the limit you are out of the scheme.

Income tax and insurance

As a freelancer you pay income tax on your profit: your turnover minus your business costs. Which entrepreneur deductions and exemptions apply to you depends on your hours, your start year and your other income. I am not going to quote amounts here, because it differs from person to person. In your first year, get advice from a bookkeeper who knows freelancers in the sports sector.

The same goes for insurance: the cover you need depends on where and how you train. You work with bodies, load and injuries, so do not skip this. Talk to an insurer or broker about which liability cover suits training at clients' homes, outdoors or in a rented space, and ask whether the gym you work in has its own requirements.

Qualifications and registers: what is mandatory?

We found no legal licence requirement for paid personal training in the Netherlands. Training and registration are therefore voluntary, but gyms and clients do pay attention to them. NL Actief is the industry body for recognised sports and fitness businesses, with around 1,200 recognised locations and more than 5,000 registered trainers by its own count. NL Actief points to the FITNED register as the fitness industry's professional register.

If you want to work in a gym as a freelancer, ask beforehand which qualification and registration they expect. You can read more about the training routes in how to get certified as a personal trainer.

AVG: your clients' health data

An intake form that asks about injuries, medication, pregnancy or heart problems contains health data. Under the GDPR (AVG) that is special category data (Article 9). You then need a legal basis from Article 6 and an exception from Article 9, which for trainers is usually explicit consent.

• Only ask what you really need to train safely.
• Record the consent, for example as a tick box in your intake form.
• Do not keep intakes in your camera roll or scattered chats, but in one place where you can also delete them when a client stops.
• Do not share progress photos without separate consent.

Do you sell packages online? Since 19 June 2026, a trader selling online must offer an electronic withdrawal function for the 14-day withdrawal period (Directive (EU) 2023/2673). Check how your sales page handles that.

What should you charge?

We could not verify reliable, current per-city rates for Dutch personal trainers for 2026, so we are not quoting amounts per city here. You do know which factors set the price:

• VAT: 21% or 9% makes a big difference to the client for the same net price.
• Location: home visits cost travel time; in a gym you often pay rent or a share of your fees.
• Format: 1-to-1, pairs, small groups or online coaching per month.
• Packages: a block of 10 or a monthly subscription gives you predictable income.
• Specialisation: rehab after injury, pregnancy or strength training for older adults attracts a different audience than general fitness.

For comparison: according to crowdsourced figures from Numbeo (October 2026), an average gym membership costs €52.92 a month in Amsterdam, €43.38 in Rotterdam and €40.35 in Utrecht. That is what your client already spends before paying you. You will find worked examples in how much should a personal trainer charge and in the overview of personal trainer prices by city.

Your software stack as a freelance trainer

At the start you can manage with a calendar, a spreadsheet and WhatsApp. From around ten clients it starts to pinch: programmes in separate PDFs, payments you have to chase yourself and intakes spread across your phone. That is when you want one place for programmes, nutrition, check-ins, chat and payments.

Trainera is one such platform. On trainera.fit/pricing for the Netherlands you will see these monthly prices:

A yearly plan costs about 10 times the monthly price. Intake forms are included on every plan, Free too, so you do not have to collect health questions through scattered chats. The library has more than 1,800 exercises with video and more than 1,100 recipes, and the client app for iOS and Android is free for your clients.

To be clear about payments: you can choose a monthly subscription by card (with Apple Pay and Google Pay), payment per plan, request only, where you agree the price outside the app, or cash payments that you record. PayPal and bank transfer are also available. iDEAL and SEPA direct debit (incasso) are not part of Trainera. If you want to collect by direct debit, you set that up through your own bank or payment provider.

There is more on the options on the software for personal trainers page and on pricing.

Your checklist for the first month

1. Register with the KVK and wait for your VAT ID.
2. Decide whether you charge 21% or 9%, and whether the KOR makes sense for you.
3. Put prices including VAT on your website and social media.
4. Create an intake form with explicit consent for health data.
5. Discuss insurance and ask what the gym requires.
6. Pick one system for programmes, check-ins and payments.

If you will also work with or for a gym, read how they set up their gym membership administration. If you also train in Flanders, the piece on gym software in Belgium will help. The general personal trainer business setup checklist covers the rest.

Try it free with your first 3 clients via Trainera for personal trainers.