Peppol deadline: 01-01-2026
00

Avoid fines

Peppol deadline: 01-01-2026
00

Avoid fines

Community

Strange question about declaring profit/loss

GDR
03/04/2023
Question

Strange question. After retirement, I’m going to start a little shop in our new purchased commercial property ‘for fun’. I’m going to exhibit my artwork there and I enjoy doing people a pleasure with it. To do this, I’m setting up a sole proprietor so that everything is okay. The intention is not to make a profit. In fact, I expect the business to be loss-making, especially if I include the depreciation of the commercial property in the costs. But I don’t think you’re allowed to set up a business that you know will make a structural loss. It could be considered fraud. I don’t need to declare the tax benefits of years of losses. Is there a workaround for this? For example, always declaring zero profit on my tax return so that the company formed from my hobby that got out of hand doesn’t suffer any disadvantage? Or is that not allowed either… Do you have to declare losses…

You can always deduct costs yourself. I had that happen to me in the past, my accountant let me know at the time.

It's okay to declare losses for the first year or two, but after that it becomes difficult for the tax authorities.

My accountant gave me two options:

  • Declare everything as it is and know that a tax audit is likely.My accountant simply did not declare part of the costs. He recorded everything during the year, but when filing my personal income tax return, he simply dropped x% of my total costs; he simply reduced the amount.

Incidentally, I went for option 1 and did indeed have an audit a few years later ;) My accounts were correct, I just made a loss, but my accounts were correct. So I had nothing to fear from the audit.

I wouldn't start mentioning that you are making structural losses and that this is part of your plan, though... :)

Thank you for your helpful response :) Best regards

Ask a question
Ask your question to the Dexxter community with over 20.000 sole traders and verified Dexxter experts.

30-day free trial. No credit card required.

You really should try it out for yourself. Even if you don’t have a company number yet, you can already go ahead.

Community

Other questions from the community

expenses
Which cost category for my machines
Electric bicycle
Enter low emission zone as cost
Overpaid social security contributions
Social security contribution refund
Writing off an invoice with a date before the start of the business
(incorrect: ) No special vAT declaration for financial transaction costs

Helaas! Onze community is momenteel enkel toegankelijk voor mensen die een proefperiode op Dexxter starten