First 2025 tax return received just 2 minutes after Dutch tax season begins
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By Simone Jacobs
The Dutch tax season for the 2025 tax year has begun. In the early hours of the morning on March 1, 2026, the first tax return was filed just two minutes and 23 seconds after the online portal opened.
Tax season begins in the Netherlands
The online portal for residents in the Netherlands to file their 2025 tax returns opened at midnight on Sunday, March 1. The Dutch tax office (Belastingdienst) received the first return two minutes and 23 seconds after the portal opened - even snappier than the four minutes and 24 seconds it took last year.
In the first hour, 17.000 tax returns had been filed. This was lower than the 35.000 filed in the first hour in 2025, due to a “minor startup issue”. A surge in taxpayers all filing at once overloaded the servers, so the portal had to be restarted within the first hour.
Deadline to file 2025 tax returns on May 1
According to AD, after the initial blip, a steady flow of tax returns resumed. By 7am, 77.000 tax returns had been filed.
Over 9,6 million residents and businesses should file their 2025 income tax returns in the coming weeks. This can easily be done online with your DigiD or with guidance from a tax advisor. The deadline to file your tax returns is May 1, unless you have been granted an extension.
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Editor for the Netherlands at IamExpat Media. Simone studied Genetics and Zoology at the University of Pretoria in South Africa before moving to the Netherlands, where she has been working as a writer and editor since 2022. One thing she loves more than creating content is consuming it, mainly by reading books by the dozen. Other than being a book dragon, she is also a nature lover and enjoys hiking and animal training.Read more