Career coaching is usually subject to 21% VAT. It is only exempt if it is education: you teach, according to a method, knowledge or skills needed for work. In addition, you must be registered as an institution in the Central Register of Short Vocational Education (CRKBO).
So an application training or a course on functioning at work can be exempt. A series of conversations about what you want in life cannot. Whether the exemption is favourable depends on your clients: for a private client it saves the 21% VAT, for an employer that deducts VAT it often saves nothing.
In short
- Exemption is only possible if it is education, aimed at work, and you are in the CRKBO. In the Teachers Register it only applies to teaching for educational institutions.
- Education in skills for private life is not vocational training. Coaching on choices and wellbeing is usually taxed.
- Exempt also means: no VAT deduction on your costs. If you mainly work for employers that deduct VAT, the exemption gives them little.
In this article
Is career coaching exempt from VAT?
Only if it is vocational training that you provide as a registered institution. The law exempts education designated by order in council. This includes vocational training by institutions in the Vocational Education Institutions Register and by persons in the Teachers Register (VAT Act 1968, article 11(1)(o) and VAT Implementing Decree 1968, article 8).
Both registers belong to the CRKBO, a register set up by the trade associations themselves. Self-employed people may also register (Belastingdienst, vocational training). Whether your work really is vocational education is decided not by the CRKBO but by the tax inspector (Education VAT exemption decree, section 6).
When is coaching education?
If, as a teacher, you transfer knowledge or teach skills according to a particular method, to one learner or to a group. It may not be purely recreational. Transferring knowledge or skills must be central (Education VAT exemption decree, section 4.1). Online is also possible, if the learner can consult you.
Vocational training prepares for a profession or trade, or keeps knowledge for work up to date. Courses for functioning in a current or future job also count, such as management, job application and works council courses. Education that mainly teaches skills for private life does not count (Education exemption decree, section 4.2).
- Probably education: an application training with exercises, a programme on networking or negotiating a new role, a course in leadership.
- Probably not education: open conversations about what you want, your values or your work-life balance.
- Borderline: a programme with tests, assignments and conversations. Record what the client learns and how, and if in doubt ask the inspector for a position.
A decree or ruling that says exactly when individual career coaching is education was not found at the time of writing. The list above is therefore an application of the general rules, not fixed tax authority policy.
Which CRKBO register do you need to be in?
If you work directly for clients or employers, you need the Institutions Register. In it you are exempt for all vocational education you offer, also as a self-employed person. The Teachers Register only applies to vocational education you provide to educational institutions, as a kind of subcontractor (Belastingdienst, vocational training).
The exemption applies from the date of entry in the register. If you are in the Teachers Register, you can no longer choose to teach with VAT for a non-registered educational institution (Education exemption decree, section 6). Anyone who wants to supply the market directly must do the heavier audit for the Institutions Register.
It also works from a company. A teacher who teaches from his company can be audited for the Teachers Register. The education must then be given by that person themselves (Education exemption decree, section 6).
Is being exempt always favourable for a career coach?
No. Exempt means you do not charge VAT, but also that you do not deduct the VAT on your costs. You only deduct VAT on costs to the extent that you use them for taxed services (VAT Act 1968, article 15). VAT on your laptop, software, training and practice room then becomes an ordinary cost.
Those who benefit most from the exemption are your clients who do not deduct VAT themselves. These are private clients, but also employers with exempt turnover, such as care institutions and childcare. An employer that does deduct VAT pays the same net amount with 21% VAT as with an exempt programme.
If you provide both exempt training and taxed coaching, you split your turnover and allocate the VAT on shared costs. If your taxed turnover is no more than € 20,000, you can also consider the small business scheme (VAT Act 1968, article 25a). Read the small business scheme: how it works and whether it is smart for you.
What does research say about individual career guidance?
That it usually helps, and that some components yield more than others. A meta-analysis of 35 groups of participants found an average effect of g = 0.82 on career outcomes and 0.68 on mental health. The effects did differ considerably between studies (Milot-Lapointe and Arifoulline, 2025). A meta-analysis summarises many studies into one average effect.
Five components predicted a larger effect: explanation of how to make a choice, adjusting limiting thoughts, written assignments such as researching occupations, individual feedback on a choice and attention to obstacles (Milot-Lapointe and Arifoulline, 2025). More on the effect of coaching for business owners is in does coaching work for business owners.
For VAT, what counts is not whether your coaching works, but what you do. If your programme mainly contains explanation, assignments and exercises for work, it looks more like education. If it mainly consists of conversations, it is coaching with 21% VAT.
What do you record if you apply the exemption?
Everything that shows that it is education. During an audit you must be able to show that you transferred knowledge or skills for work, according to a method, and that you were in the right register at that moment.
- A programme per assignment with learning goals, components, hours and materials.
- The date of your CRKBO registration, and in which register.
- Separate invoices or invoice lines for exempt training and for taxed coaching.
- A position from the inspector if you are unsure whether a programme is education.
Sources
- VAT Act 1968 (Wet op de omzetbelasting 1968), articles 11(1)(o), 15 and 25a, version of 1 January 2026. wetten.overheid.nl
- VAT Implementing Decree 1968 (Uitvoeringsbesluit omzetbelasting 1968), article 8, version of 1 January 2026. wetten.overheid.nl
- Belastingdienst, Beroepsopleidingen (Vocational training), accessed 1 November 2026. belastingdienst.nl
- State Secretary for Finance, Education VAT exemption decree, 21 January 2025, no. 2024-25032, Government Gazette 2025, 3488. officielebekendmakingen.nl
- Milot-Lapointe, F. & Arifoulline, N. (2025). A meta-analysis of the effectiveness of individual career counseling on career and mental health outcomes. Journal of Employment Counseling, 62(1), 49-57. doi.org