As a self-employed painter, you get through the winter with money you set aside in summer, and with indoor work that you arranged in time. In winter you work fewer hours, but your fixed costs, your pension contribution and the VAT on the busy summer simply continue. A scheme that tops up your income in frost or rain, as an employee has, does not exist for you.
In short
- Before 1 November, put two months of fixed costs in a separate account. In the example that is about €12,000.
- With every payment, set aside the VAT on that invoice, and 15% of the amount excluding VAT for income tax. Calculate per invoice, because 9% and 21% are mixed.
- In frost, an employee in the painting trade gets pay or a benefit. As a self-employed painter you get nothing. So arrange your indoor work for the winter in August and September.
About the amounts: the worked example assumes a single, starting painter in 2026 with a sole proprietorship, €70 per hour excluding VAT and 1,100 billable hours a year. Hours and costs are assumptions, not market figures.
In this article
- Why is winter tight for a self-employed painter?
- How big should your winter buffer be?
- How do you keep VAT separate when you charge 9% and 21%?
- How much do you set aside for income tax?
- Does your pension contribution continue in winter?
- Why do you have no bad weather scheme as a self-employed painter?
- Where do you find indoor work for the winter?
- Should you give a discount in winter?
Why is winter tight for a self-employed painter?
Because in winter you can bill fewer hours, while your costs stay the same every month. Outdoor work stops in frost, rain and short days, and indoor jobs for private clients are often small. Billable hours are the hours you can put on an invoice.
In the worked example the painter works 25.5 weeks of 28 billable hours from April to October. That is 714 hours. From November to March it is 19 weeks of 20 hours, 380 hours in total. At €70 per hour excluding VAT, an average summer month brings in €7,140 from labour and an average winter month €5,320.
To pay his costs, interest and the income he needs, €77,323 a year must come from labour in the example. That is €6,444 a month. So in every winter month he is about €1,124 short, €5,620 over five months. He must already have saved that gap in summer.
The trade also notices that winter is quieter. OnderhoudNL, the employers' organisation for painters, wrote to housing associations in 2020 that, according to research, about 15% of the available maintenance capacity is left unused in the winter months (OnderhoudNL, 2020). The research itself is not in the letter. There is no more recent figure.
How big should your winter buffer be?
Before 1 November, put two months of fixed costs in a separate savings account. Fixed costs are all amounts that leave your account every month, business and private, even if you invoice nothing. With that buffer you bridge a quiet month or a period of frost without taking on work below your price in a panic.
| Fixed cost per month (example) | Amount |
|---|---|
| Net private income | €3,000 |
| Pension and disability insurance | €700 |
| Business costs, one twelfth of €21,200 | €1,767 |
| Repayment and interest on a €25,000 loan | €531 |
| Total per month | €5,998 |
| Winter buffer, two months | about €12,000 |
The amounts come from the same worked example. The loan is €25,000 over 5 years at 9.95% interest. The business costs also include depreciation on tools and ladders, which does not leave your account every month. So your own buffer may be somewhat lower. Fill in your own amounts.
In the example the summer surplus is €696 a month, €4,872 over seven months. That is less than two months of fixed costs. So in the first year the buffer partly comes from your start-up money. After that you top it up every summer. More hours in winter help most: if you also reach 28 hours a week in winter, that is 152 hours more, €10,640 at €70 per hour.
How do you keep VAT separate when you charge 9% and 21%?
With every payment, put the VAT on that invoice into a separate account straight away. Calculate per invoice, not with a fixed percentage of your turnover. A painter charges 9% and 21% side by side, and then a fixed estimate is never right.
Painting work on a home older than 2 years is subject to 9% VAT (Belastingdienst). So is the paint and other materials you use for it. The Decree of the State Secretary says literally that the materials used in painting and plastering fall under the reduced VAT rate (Decree on Table I of the VAT Act, 2025). Fitting new wood for wood rot, glass, the wallpaper itself and work on a business property are subject to 21%.
Watch the dates. For July, August and September, the return and payment must be in by 31 October at the latest. For October, November and December it is 31 January (Belastingdienst). So right at the start of the quiet months you pay the VAT on your busiest quarter. If you have already spent that VAT, you start the winter with a gap.
How much do you set aside for income tax?
Set aside 25% of your profit for income tax. In the worked example that is about 15% of every amount you receive, excluding VAT. That 15% is simpler, because you only know your exact profit after the year ends.
An example. A client pays €849.11 for a living room: €779 plus 9% VAT. Of that, €70.11 goes into the VAT pot and €116.85 into the tax pot. For wood rot with new wood, a client pays €309.76: €256 plus 21% VAT. Then €53.76 goes into the VAT pot and €38.40 into the tax pot.
Also apply for a provisional assessment. The Belastingdienst recommends this if you expect a profit, to avoid having to pay a large amount in one go. You then pay income tax in advance in monthly instalments (Belastingdienst). That instalment also continues in January and February, so money has to be ready for it too.
Separate pots work because people divide money into compartments in their heads. Behavioural economist Richard Thaler describes how people group their spending into categories and sometimes limit spending with a budget per category (Thaler, 1999). That research was about households, not painters. But it explains why money in a separate account with a name on it is spent less quickly.
Does your pension contribution continue in winter?
Yes. As a self-employed painter you are a compulsory member of BPF Schilders, the industry pension fund. Every 4 weeks you receive an invoice for 1/13th of the annual contribution. At the lowest pension income choice for 2026 that is €174.42 each time (BPF Schilders).
BPF Schilders says so itself: if you temporarily have no income, for example during the winter break, payment of your pension contribution simply continues (BPF Schilders). Thirteen times €174.42 is €2,267 a year. You may deduct that contribution as business costs (Belastingdienst). Include it in your fixed costs and therefore in your winter buffer.
Why do you have no bad weather scheme as a self-employed painter?
Because that scheme is for employees. An employee in the painting trade keeps his pay in frost, or receives an unemployment benefit that the employer tops up. A self-employed painter has no employer and no collective agreement, and so no right to this benefit. Every day you cannot work costs you turnover.
The collective agreement for the painting, finishing, property maintenance and glazing trade (cao SAVG) has been declared generally binding, so it applies to all employers in the trade. In frost or snow between 1 November and 31 March, or with at least 300 minutes of rain on a working day, there is bad weather. After the waiting days, the duty to continue paying wages lapses. If the employer applies to UWV for unemployment benefit, he can top it up to 100% of the wage (cao SAVG, article 36).
UWV says the same: the employer applies for the benefit, and that is only possible if the collective agreement contains arrangements for it (UWV). In addition, an employer may close the business for at most two weeks in winter, and in that winter closure the employee gets 7 days off with pay (cao SAVG, articles 38 and 48).
| In frost or heavy rain | Employee under the cao SAVG | Self-employed painter |
|---|---|---|
| Income | Wages, after the waiting days benefit via the employer | None |
| Winter closure | 7 days off with pay | No turnover |
| Pension contribution | Via the employer | Continues, every 4 weeks |
Where do you find indoor work for the winter?
Look for your winter work in August and September, while clients still see you working outside. Good sources are the client who is having their window frames done now, the owners' association with a stairwell, and a painting firm or contractor that refurbishes empty rental homes for a housing association.
- Sell indoor work to the client who has the outside painted in summer. Do not offer a discount, but priority: whoever has the inside painted in winter gets the first date for outside work in spring.
- A stairwell, hall or gallery in an apartment building falls under the same rate as the homes, so 9% (Decree, section 2.3). If there is also a shop or office in the building, you split according to the residential part.
- If you work as a subcontractor for a painting firm or contractor, you reverse-charge the VAT (Belastingdienst). Agree a price per job, for example per home or stairwell.
Do not drop your rate too far for a business client in winter. From 31 December 2026, someone who works for a business for about €38 per hour or less can claim that they are in fact an employee (KVK, 2026). That amount is the figure as at 1 January 2026, and the amount as at 31 December 2026 is still to follow. The rule does not apply to private clients (Bulletin of Acts 2026, 158).
Should you give a discount in winter?
Do not give a general winter discount. In the worked example, the quieter winter is already included in the 1,100 hours used to calculate your rate. A 10% discount on 380 winter hours costs €2,660 a year at €70 per hour. Only give a discount in a targeted way, for a fixed period and only for indoor work, if your diary really is empty.
Clients do often expect something. Trustoo writes that a winter painter is on average 10% to 30% cheaper, usually from early November to the end of March (Trustoo). That is a market picture from a platform, not a rule. The same site reports that there is no subsidy for painting work in 2026. No official source for a winter painting scheme can be found. So do not write the words winter painting scheme in a quote, because that suggests something that does not exist.
Sources
- Thaler, R.H. (1999). Mental accounting matters. Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, 12(3), 183-206. doi.org
- Besluit omzetbelasting toelichting tabel I (Decree on Table I of the VAT Act), 22 December 2025, Government Gazette 2025, 39463, sections 2.3 and 6. officielebekendmakingen.nl
- Decision declaring the cao SAVG generally binding, Government Gazette 2026, 27574, articles 36, 38 and 48. officielebekendmakingen.nl
- Act of 18 June 2026, Bulletin of Acts and Decrees 2026, 158, article 7:610aa of the Dutch Civil Code. officielebekendmakingen.nl
- Belastingdienst, Woningen ouder dan 2 jaar (homes older than 2 years), accessed 24 October 2026. belastingdienst.nl
- Belastingdienst, Wanneer moeten mijn btw-aangifte en mijn betaling binnen zijn? (when must my VAT return and payment be in?), accessed 24 October 2026. belastingdienst.nl
- Belastingdienst, Is het verstandig een voorlopige aanslag aan te vragen? (is it wise to apply for a provisional assessment?), accessed 24 October 2026. belastingdienst.nl
- Belastingdienst, Beroepspensioenpremies: aftrek beperkt (professional pension contributions: limited deduction), accessed 24 October 2026. belastingdienst.nl
- Belastingdienst, Verlegging bij onderaanneming en personeel uitlenen (reverse charge for subcontracting and hiring out staff), accessed 24 October 2026. belastingdienst.nl
- BPF Schilders, Pensioenkeuzeloon (pension income choice), accessed 24 October 2026. bpfschilders.nl
- UWV, WW bij onwerkbaar weer (unemployment benefit for bad weather), accessed 24 October 2026. uwv.nl
- KVK, Ben je wel zelfstandig met een uurtarief lager dan 38 euro? (are you self-employed with an hourly rate below 38 euros?), updated 7 October 2026. kvk.nl
- OnderhoudNL, Jaarrond onderhoud (year-round maintenance), letter to housing associations, 2020. onderhoudnl.nl
- Trustoo, Winterschilder (winter painter), accessed 24 October 2026. trustoo.nl