Timelines and Deadlines for Compliance Obligations in the Netherlands

With reference to our blog “Doing business in the Netherlands and compliance obligations", we will focus in this blog on the timelines and deadlines of the various compliance obligations which a business might have in the Netherlands.

Payroll administration /wage tax returns

If the Dutch business does employ personnel (and has registered appropriately for payroll taxes), the company should perform a payroll administration in the Netherlands. Most commonly, an employee will receive its salary monthly. Accordingly, the employee will at the end of the month receive a payroll slips from its Dutch employer and receive also its nett salary on its (personal) bank account. Regularly, the salary will be paid at the 25th or 26th day of the month.

Furthermore, the employer should file a wage tax return and transfer the Dutch payroll withholding taxes including employee insurances and / or social premium contributions to the Dutch tax authorities. The wage tax return should be filed one month after the previous salary period has ended. Also, the tax liability should be paid within a month after the previous salary period. In other words, the wage tax return for period January should be filed before 28 February, the wage tax return for period February should be filed before 31 March. If the company will not be compliant a penalty will be imposed for not filing the wage tax return timely (commonly EUR 68) and/or a penalty for not having paid the taxes timely (commonly 3% with a minimum of EUR 50).

Within the payroll administration, also (tax-free) reimbursements can be processed, for example commuter travel expenses, working home allowances, lump-sum reimbursements, etc. Furthermore, the Work-Related-Cost-Scheme should be monitored, which Scheme provides the possibility to provide “tax-free” reimbursements.

VAT-compliance obligations

If the business is appropriately registered for VAT-purposes, the business should timely file its VAT-returns. Commonly, a VAT-return will be filed quarterly, unless a request has been filed with the Dutch tax authorities to file monthly. The latter scenario is most feasible if large amounts of input VAT will be expected. It is important that the transactions will be reported within the correct categories within the Dutch VAT-return, This information could be mostly gathered from the administration (in accounting software). Furthermore, it is important to check whether the invoice requirements will be met and/or whether VAT-registration numbers are valid. If the company will not be compliant a penalty will be imposed for not filing the VAT-return timely (commonly EUR 68) and/or a penalty for not having paid the taxes timely (commonly 3% with a minimum of EUR 50).

Depending on whether sales have been performed to other entrepreneurs within the EU, the business should file so-called EC-sales listings. The value of EC-sales has already been reported in category 3b of the VAT-return and by filing the EC-sales listing, the value of each transaction to each entrepreneur will be reported including the valid VAT-registration of the recipient. In principle, the EC-sales listing will be reported also quarterly. However, if during a quarter the EC-sales exceeds the value of EUR 50,000, the Dutch tax authorities will request to have the EC-sales listings monthly instead of quarterly. Please be emphasized that in such scenario, the VAT-return will still be filed quarterly. If the company will not be compliant a penalty will be imposed for not filing the EC-sales listing timely (commonly EUR 68).

Next to the business might be requested to report so-called Intrastat-returns if the company performs EC-sales (B2B) for a value of more than EUR 1,000,000 yearly or purchases from European suppliers exceeds EUR 800,000 yearly, will be invited by the Central Bureau for Statistics to file these reports. Within these reports, again the valid VAT-registrations of the customers will be notified including more details of the transactions, amongst others the value, the weight, in which way the goods have been transported, country of origin of the goods sold and applicable incoterms.

In principle, this report should be reported 10 working days after the previous has ended. Furthermore, the report should be filed on a monthly basis, and it is irrelevant whether the VAT-return will be filed quarterly. If the company is not compliant, in principle it is an economic delict which can be sanctioned. However, in practice, we have not noted based on previous experiences that actually a sanction will be issued.

One Stop Shop return

If the Dutch business performs sales to EU-residing individuals, and the value of these transactions exceed an amount of EUR 10,000 in a year, the company does have the possibility to request to make use of the so-called one-stop-shop-regime. This request should be filed before the period in which it will be expected that the turnover to EU-individuals (not being Dutch individuals) will exceed EUR 10,000. The OSS-return will be filed quarterly and within one month after the taxable period has ended. If the company is not compliant, penalties will be imposed equal as to the sanctions for not being compliant with VAT-return.

The benefit of this regime is the fact that only one return should be filed and only one payment should be performed instead of multiple registrations within the EU, multiple returns should be filed, etc.

Import One Stop Shop return

Business outside the EU, performing sales to EU-individuals, might opt to make use of the Import One Stop Shop regime. The advantage, similar to the regular OSS-return, is the fact that only one IOSS-return should be filed regularly monthly and that only one total amount should be transferred to the Dutch tax authorities instead of all several EU-countries separately. If the company is not compliant, penalties will be imposed equal as to the sanctions for not being compliant with VAT-return.

Annual accounts

In principle, the annual accounts should be prepared on the one side and on the other side deposited with the Dutch Chamber of Commerce within 5 months after the reporting period has ended. For companies with a book year equal to calendar year, this means that the annual accounts should be deposited before 1 June of the year after the reporting period. However, it is common to deposit the annual accounts 6 months later, if the company internally agrees on such postponement. Therefore, in principle, the annual accounts for companies having its book year equal to calendar year will be 1 November of the year after the reporting period. However, another exemption is the fact that the annual accounts should be adopted within a period of 2 months after the annual accounts have been finalized. Therefore, the maximum term for depositing will be 12 months. However, if the company does have a similar shareholder and director (medium sized family companies), the deadline will be 31 October. Furthermore, if the annual accounts have been adopted, the annual accounts should be deposited within 8 days. If the company is not compliant, in principle it is an economic delict which can be sanctioned. However, in practice, we have not noted based on previous experiences that actually a sanction will be issued.

Corporate income tax return

A corporate income tax return, should in principle, be filed within 5 months after the reporting year has ended, similar to the initial deadline of depositing annual accounts. However, extensions can be filed with the Dutch tax authorities. A taxpayer can request for an extension of 4 months itself or request their intermediary to file a request according to the so-called Becon-rule and an extension of 11 months will be granted. Summarizing the maximum period for filing the corporate income tax return is 16 months (if granted).

If the corporate income tax return will not be filed timely, the company will receive a reminder from the Dutch tax authorities with a term of an additional 10 working days (2 weeks) to have the return filed. If nevertheless, the company still not file the return although the reminder, a demand note will be received with an additional term of 10 working days (2 weeks) to have the return still be filed.

If although the reminder and demand note, the company fails to be compliant, a penalty will be imposed with a maximum of EUR 5,578 (2025). Regularly, if the company will not be compliant for the first time, the penalty will be mitigated to 50% of the maximum amount.

Finally, it is of importance to monitor whether the company will be in a tax payable position and file timely provisional tax returns to avoid tax interest (9% in 2025). The tax interest will be calculated from 6 months after the book year has ended (regularly July for book years equal to calendar year).