Netherlands
Netherlands: 5 company types, its taxes, banking and business environment, and what it is known for.
Forming a company
Company types in the Netherlands
The 5 forms a founder can choose here, each with its own figures. Open one for its sources.
What it is known for
Where Netherlands is in the world’s top 10 on a measure anyone can check, the best rank first. Only the top is shown; a low rank is never stated.
- World’s1stWorld-leading exports Live plants, cuttings and mushroom spawnOther live plants (including their roots), cuttings and slips; mushroom spawnUS$4.5 bn · 41.5% of world exports of 157 exporters · 2024 CEPII BACI, January 2026 release See the top 10
- World’s2ndWorld-leading exports Semiconductor-manufacturing machinesMachines and apparatus of a kind used solely or principally for the manufacture of semiconductor boules or wafers, semiconductor devices, electronic integrated circuits or flat panel displays; machines and apparatus specified in note 11(C) to this chapter; parts and accessoriesUS$22.8 bn · 17.4% of world exports of 157 exporters · 2024 CEPII BACI, January 2026 release See the top 10
- World’s joint3rdLogistics and freight Logistics Performance Index4.1 of 5 of 138 economies · 2022 World Bank, World Development Indicators See the top 12
- World’s3rdWorld-leading exports Cheese and curdUS$5.6 bn · 12.6% of world exports of 170 exporters · 2024 CEPII BACI, January 2026 release See the top 10
- World’s6thTax-treaty network Income-tax treaties in force102 of 100 treaty networks we hold the tax authority's own list (tax-treaties collection) See the top 10
- World’s9thDigital services ICT service exportsUS$31.8 bn of 133 economies · 2025 World Bank, World Development Indicators See the top 10
- World’s10thResearch and technology High-technology exportsUS$103 bn of 123 economies · 2024 World Bank, World Development Indicators See the top 10
A rank is among everything the source reports for that year, so it moves when the source adds or drops economies. Exports include goods passing through for re-export. Nothing here is a recommendation.
Doing business here
Business accounts
Providers whose own published list of countries names Netherlands. A listing means a company formed here may apply, not that it will be accepted.
Not in our records No provider's country list has been read for Netherlands.
EU listings
Two lists a bank checks when it opens an account for a company or its owner.
- EU high-risk third countries (AML)
- Not listed
- EU non-cooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes
- Not listedOfficial EUR-Lex, 52026XG01465, Annex I as of 2026-02-17
Official sites
The authorities’ own sites for Netherlands: where to register, file and check.
Blocs and agreements
The trade arrangements Netherlands belongs to, as each arrangement’s own texts state them: since when, and what each covers. What a membership means for a business is for you to judge.
- European Union: internal market and customs union
- Single market · since 1958
Covers goods, services, establishment, capital, movement of people, a common external tariff.
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EU Member State since 1958, Euro area member since 1999, Schengen area member since 1995 and more about Dutch participation in the EU.
- European Union: VAT territory
- Inside it
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‘Community’ and ‘territory of the Community’ mean the territories of the Member States as defined in point (2);
- Euro area
- Monetary union · since 1999
Covers a common currency.
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EU Member State since 1958, Euro area member since 1999, Schengen area member since 1995 and more about Dutch participation in the EU.
- Schengen area
- Free movement area · since 1995
Covers movement of people.
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EU Member State since 1958, Euro area member since 1999, Schengen area member since 1995 and more about Dutch participation in the EU.
- European Economic Area
- Single market · since 1 January 1994
Covers goods, movement of people, services, establishment, capital.
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which now covers the EU and its 27 Member States, and three of the four EFTA members: Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein.
Regional and customs arrangements only, 36 of them; bilateral trade agreements are not yet in our records.
Tax
Company tax
Tax, and what the company owes the registry each year.
- Corporate income tax
- 25.8%
- Distributions
- Not in our records
- Audit
- Not in our records
- Small-company relief
- Not in our records
- Annual obligations
- Not in our records
- Annual registry fee
- Not in our records
VAT
The tax on what the company sells in Netherlands, and when it must register, as the tax authority states it.
- Standard rate
- 21%Official European Commission, Taxes in Europe Database situation on 2026/07/01
- Other rates
- 9% A limited number of goods
- 9% A number of services
- 0% Goods supplied abroad or stored in a customs warehouse
- 0% Certain cross-border services, such as air or sea passenger transport to or from destinations outside the Netherlands
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Het algemene btw-tarief is 21%. Voor sommige goederen en diensten geldt het lage tarief van 9%, het 0%-tarief of een vrijstelling.
- Registration threshold
- No threshold: from the first taxable supply
taxable supplies
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U bent ondernemer vanaf het moment dat u iets doet voor uw onderneming.
- Voluntary registration
- No
Registration follows from being an entrepreneur for VAT; a business established in the Netherlands with turnover up to €20,000 a year may instead choose to apply the KOR VAT exemption.
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En is uw omzet niet meer dan € 20.000 per kalenderjaar? Dan kunt u gebruikmaken van de kleineondernemersregeling (KOR).
- A foreign company
- Registers from its first taxable supply
A foreign business must register once it has Dutch VAT obligations, with no turnover threshold. It may act for itself or appoint a fiscal representative, which the authority says is compulsory in some situations it does not list on the page read.
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U bent ondernemer vanaf het moment dat u iets doet voor uw onderneming.
- Returns filed
- Quarterly
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Btw-aangifte doet u meestal per kwartaal.
- Tax authority
- Registration page read 2026-10-22
Tax calendar
When the main returns and payments fall due in Netherlands, tax year 2025, as the tax authority states it.
- Corporate tax return
- 5 months after the end of the accounting period · each year
a company files its corporate income tax return (vennootschapsbelasting) within five months of the end of its book year; where the book year equals the calendar year the return is due before 1 June of the following year (a short book year ending in December also 1 June). The page states no weekend rule.
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Is uw boekjaar gelijk aan het kalenderjaar? Dan moet u de aangifte indienen voor 1 juni van het volgende kalenderjaar. Hebt u een gebroken boekjaar? Dan doet u aangifte binnen 5 maanden na het einde van het boekjaar.
- Corporate tax, final payment
- 42 days after the end of the assessment notice · each year
an assessment that cannot be paid in monthly instalments must be paid in full within six weeks of the date on the assessment; this is the general assessment payment term, stated for a preliminary assessment imposed after the year end. The rule is anchored to the assessment date.
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Als er na die datum minder dan 2 hele maanden overblijven, geldt een betalingstermijn van 6 weken.
- Corporate tax, instalments
- 31 December · each month
a provisional corporate income tax assessment for the current year may be paid in equal monthly instalments; the whole amount must be in the Tax Administration's account by 31 December. The rule records the final date of the assessment year.
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U moet deze voorlopige aanslagen dan in gelijke maandelijkse termijnen betalen. Het totale bedrag moet uiterlijk op 31 december op onze rekening staan.
- Personal income-tax return
- 1 May · each year
an individual who receives an aangiftebrief must file the income tax return by the date in the letter, which is usually 1 May. A person living abroad has until 1 July. The page states no weekend rule.
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Dan moet u aangifte doen voor de datum in de brief. Meestal is dit 1 mei.
- Personal income tax, final payment
- 42 days after the end of the assessment notice · each year
an income tax assessment that cannot be paid in monthly instalments must be paid in full within six weeks of the date on the assessment. The rule is anchored to the assessment date.
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Als er na die datum minder dan 2 hele maanden overblijven, geldt een betalingstermijn van 6 weken.
- Personal income tax, instalments
- 31 December · each month
a provisional income tax assessment for the current year may be paid in equal monthly instalments (up to eleven); the whole amount must be in the Tax Administration's account by 31 December. The rule records the final date of the assessment year.
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U moet deze voorlopige aanslagen dan in gelijke maandelijkse termijnen betalen. Het totale bedrag moet uiterlijk op 31 december op onze rekening staan.
- VAT return
- 1 month after the end of the quarter · each quarter
the VAT (btw) return and payment are due by the last day of the month following the month or quarter to which they relate; most entrepreneurs file quarterly and larger businesses monthly. The rule records the standard quarterly period. Businesses may also file annually, due before 1 April of the following year. The page states no weekend rule.
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Doet u per kwartaal of per maand aangifte? Dan doet u dat uiterlijk op de laatste dag van de maand die volgt op het kwartaal of de maand waarover u aangifte doet.
- Payroll withholding
- 1 month after the end of the month · each month
an employer files and pays the wage tax and social insurance contributions (loonheffingen) monthly; the payment must be in the Tax Administration's account by the date in the 'Aangiftebrief loonheffingen', which is normally the last day of the month after the period. If that date is a Saturday, Sunday or public holiday the payment must be made before it (the previous working day), not after. The Handboek Loonheffingen is a PDF; its text digest is recorded as a bytes hash.
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De betaling moet uiterlijk op onze rekening staan op de datum die staat in de ‘Aangiftebrief loonheffingen’.
Running the company
Running a company here
What it takes to keep a company in good standing in Netherlands: the full guide is on each form’s own page.
Running a besloten vennootschap met beperkte aansprakelijkheid (BV)
23 obligations for one shareholder who is the sole director, with who may do each, when, and how.
- The director can do
- 16 of its 23 obligations
personally, through the authorities’ own services.
- A professional the law requires
- A licensed auditor — if only where the company does not meet two of these three tests on two consecutive balance-sheet dates Statutory audit by a registeraccountant above the size tests
- A licensed professional — once the company has employees Written risk inventory and evaluation (RI&E) with a plan of action
- Not required here
- Annual return or confirmation statement · General business licence renewal · Data-protection registration or fee with the AP
Not yet covered: NV, VOF, CV, eenmanszaak (sole proprietorship). Each form has its own requirements.
Economy and trade
What it exports
Goods Netherlands exported, by product, as a share of its goods exports each year. Exports include goods passing through for re-export. A share describes Netherlands’s own trade; it does not compare places.
| Product (HS heading) | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | Value, 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Petroleum oils and oils obtained from bituminous minerals, other than crude; preparations not elsewhere specified or included, containing by weight 70 % or more of petroleum oils or of oils obtained from bituminous minerals, these oils being the basic constituents of the preparations; waste oils HS 2710 | 10.7% | 10.0% | 8.6% | US$50.4 bn |
| Petroleum oils and oils obtained from bituminous minerals, crude HS 2709 | 3.2% | 4.0% | 4.2% | US$24.7 bn |
| Machines and apparatus of a kind used solely or principally for the manufacture of semiconductor boules or wafers, semiconductor devices, electronic integrated circuits or flat panel displays; machines and apparatus specified in note 11(C) to this chapter; parts and accessories HS 8486 | 3.2% | 3.6% | 3.9% | US$22.8 bn |
| Human blood; animal blood prepared for therapeutic, prophylactic or diagnostic uses; antisera, other blood fractions and immunological products, whether or not modified or obtained by means of biotechnological processes; vaccines, toxins, cultures of micro-organisms (excluding yeasts) and similar products; cell cultures, whether or not modified HS 3002 | 2.8% | 2.2% | 3.2% | US$18.5 bn |
| Automatic data-processing machines and units thereof; magnetic or optical readers, machines for transcribing data onto data media in coded form and machines for processing such data, not elsewhere specified or included HS 8471 | 3.0% | 2.6% | 2.8% | US$16.4 bn |
| Telephone sets, including smartphones and other telephones for cellular networks or for other wireless networks; other apparatus for the transmission or reception of voice, images or other data, including apparatus for communication in a wired or wireless network (such as a local or wide area network), other than transmission or reception apparatus of heading 8443, 8525, 8527 or 8528 HS 8517 | 3.0% | 2.8% | 2.8% | US$16.3 bn |
| Medicaments (excluding goods of heading 3002, 3005 or 3006) consisting of mixed or unmixed products for therapeutic or prophylactic uses, put up in measured doses (including those in the form of transdermal administration systems) or in forms or packings for retail sale HS 3004 | 2.3% | 2.4% | 2.4% | US$13.9 bn |
| Instruments and appliances used in medical, surgical, dental or veterinary sciences, including scintigraphic apparatus, other electromedical apparatus and sight-testing instruments HS 9018 | 1.3% | 1.4% | 1.5% | US$8.7 bn |
| Motor cars and other motor vehicles principally designed for the transport of persons (other than those of heading 8702), including station wagons and racing cars HS 8703 | 1.0% | 1.5% | 1.1% | US$6.6 bn |
| Orthopaedic appliances, including crutches, surgical belts and trusses; splints and other fracture appliances; artificial parts of the body; hearing aids and other appliances which are worn or carried, or implanted in the body, to compensate for a defect or disability HS 9021 | 0.95% | 0.89% | 1.1% | US$6.1 bn |
Total goods exports, 2024: US$583 bn. The ten largest headings are shown.