Tax saving automatically moves money from your main account into a separate tax reserve sub-account, so you don't accidentally spend money you'll owe in taxes later. You choose to reserve 90%, 100%, or 110% of your currently estimated tax obligations, and Accountable handles the transfers for you.
Tax saving is a convenience tool to help you avoid spending money you'll likely owe — it's not an official tax calculation. Accountable's estimate is based on your bookkeeping in the app, so if your records are incomplete, if you have income or deductions outside the app, or once your official return is filed, the real amount can differ from what's reserved.
The reserve covers what you owe up to and including the current quarter, based on your actual bookkeeping to date. It does not try to cover taxes on income you haven't earned yet later in the year. In other words: it keeps pace with what you've actually billed and spent so far — it isn't a forecast of your full annual tax bill.
VAT and income tax are calculated completely separately, then added together:
VAT: We sum all your open VAT positions (current quarter + any unpaid past quarters). If the total works out to a refund rather than an amount owed, VAT contributes €0 to the reserve — a VAT refund never reduces what you set aside for income tax, and vice versa.
Income tax: We sum the current quarter's estimate (based on a projected tax rate applied to your actual income so far) together with any open positions from past tax years. If that combined total is a refund, income tax also contributes €0.
Each tax type is floored at €0 individually before being added to the total — a refund on one type can never offset a debt on the other.
Example: You owe €500 VAT this quarter, but you're also owed a €700 refund from a previous VAT quarter. Your VAT position nets to –€200, which floors to €0. Separately, you owe €1,000 in income tax this quarter. Your total required reserve = €0 (VAT) + €1,000 (income tax) = €1,000 — the VAT refund doesn't reduce the income tax amount.
Past-period income tax positions are summed across all open years together, not year by year. So a pending refund from an earlier, unresolved year is subtracted from what you owe for a more recent year.
Example: You owe €3,000 in income tax for 2025, and you're due a €1,200 refund from 2024 that hasn't been paid out yet. These combine into a single past-period position of €3,000 − €1,200 = €1,800. Your reserve target is based on this net figure, not on the €3,000 alone. This is expected — it just means the reserve reflects your net position across open years, not each year in isolation.
One nuance: for the most recent past year that hasn't been officially filed yet (e.g., 2025 right now), the figure is based on your actual bookkeeping — it isn't a projection, but it also isn't a final, tax-office-confirmed amount yet.
Yes. If you've entered your mandatory quarterly prepayment amount, Accountable reserves whichever is higher: our own calculated estimate, or your mandatory prepayment. The reserve will never fall short of what the tax office requires you to prepay.
Anna is a freelancer in Germany with Tax Aside set to 110%.
VAT, current quarter: owes €500
VAT, previous quarter (unpaid refund): owed a €700 refund → VAT position: 500 − 700 = −€200 → floors to €0
Income tax, current quarter: owes €1,000 (based on projected rate × actual income so far)
Income tax, 2025 (unfiled): owes €3,000
Income tax, 2024 (pending refund): owed €1,200 → Past-period income tax net: 3,000 − 1,200 = €1,800 → Total income tax position: 1,000 + 1,800 = €2,800
Required reserve = €0 (VAT) + €2,800 (income tax) = €2,800
At 110%: 2,800 × 1.10 = €3,080
This is the amount Accountable will try to hold in Anna's tax reserve sub-account.
Marking an invoice as sent affects your taxable income and your calculated provisions right away. But no money is actually transferred into your tax reserve account until that invoice is paid. The calculation and the transfer are two separate steps.
The reserve isn't recalculated continuously in real time — it's recalculated overnight, typically the night following a triggering event (an invoice being paid, or new funds arriving in your main account after a previous transfer was blocked by insufficient funds).
Importantly, the automation only ever adds money to your reserve — it never removes money from it automatically. So if your estimate goes up (for example, after you finalize a tax return or record more income), your reserve won't "catch up" to the new, higher target until the next recalculation runs. In the meantime, you may correctly see something like "I've set 110%, but my reserve holds less than that" — that's expected behavior, not a bug, while you're waiting for the next recalculation. Conversely, if your estimate goes down, your reserve will stay at the higher amount rather than being reduced, since funds are never pulled back out automatically.
You'll get a notification (push + email). As soon as new funds arrive in your main account, Accountable automatically retries the transfer — no action needed from you.
Tax Aside automatically includes all tax types that apply to you — VAT and income tax — so your reserve always reflects your full obligation, not just part of it. This keeps things simple and ensures nothing gets missed by accident.
Author - Valesca Wilms
As content marketing lead at Accountable Belgium, Valesca writes about freelancing, self-employment, and taxes based on her own experience as a freelancer.
Who is Valesca ?Thank you for your feedback!
Useful
As a self-employed individual with a sole proprietorship, your income is taxed under the personal in...
Read moreStarting from 2026, all self-employed individuals will need to send their invoices electronically in...
Read moreThe VAT reverse charge is a complicated word for a simple concept. It helps you purchase and sell sm...
Read moreThey always answer right away to any question I have, they provide clear answers, and they are very patient even when I struggle to understand. They try to explain in different ways. They are very helpful, responsive and friendly.
Chiara Marradi
01/05/2026
Everything was great! All my questions were answered quickly and in a friendly manner.
Wenzeslawa Wegener
04/05/2026
In the world where everyone seems to be out to get small entrepreneurs and overwhelm them with new rules, more taxes and reporting obligations, Accountable often feels like the one steady partner that actually wants you to succeed, providing quick, clear and personalised support. Thank you!
Janina Arsenjeva
10/04/2026
This is an amazing application with great support on issues. In short as in day I am addicted to it (in a positive way). I myself is from IT project management and the way they have captured the user requirement, it’s phenomenal.
Sumit Tewary
01/12/2024
UI is great. Feature packed and very easy to use. The team at Accountable were VERY quick to respond and their team of technicians soon had a fix in place. Very happy with the level of service so far. Thumbs up from me!
Dean Osborne
14/06/2023
This program is a lifesaver, and it is always improving. Plus, it has an AI chat feature that is actually useful.
Jeffrey Humble
14/01/2026
The coaching session on tax management was excellent, good material, excellent explanations and very insightful. Combined with the AI I never feel alone with Accountable.
Sergio Barbarino
23/04/2026
The availability of your team to help and guide people to understand their finances better is what really makes Accountable valuable. While the AI is able to give answers to most basic questions, specific scenarios need counsel from a human which your team performs beautifully.
Sofiya Bogdan Neves
18/04/2026
Fast and careful answers from Alina. Top service. Thank you.
Anonymous
15/04/2023
They always answer for questions wherever is via direct e-mail or through app. If they can’t answer fully they will forward you to the right place. Documents were always prepared well and ready to send further to government. Everything is intuitive in the app and easy to sort out even for someone completely green in this field.
Anonymous
22/03/2026
