How does a foreign company register for VAT in the Netherlands?

Work out whether you have to register at all

Not every foreign company does. The Tax Administration says registration with the form for foreign companies is needed when, for example, you import or export goods and have to file VAT returns, or when you are established outside the EU, do not have to file returns, but want to reclaim Dutch VAT, or when you use the One Stop Shop through the Netherlands.

It also names cases where you do not register here. A company established in another EU country that does not have to file Dutch returns claims its Dutch VAT back in its own country instead. Sellers from outside the EU who are already registered under the Union scheme somewhere else stay there.

Source: Belastingdienst, Your tax office and registration

Check whether the reverse charge moves the VAT to your customer

This step often removes the reason to register. When a foreign entrepreneur supplies goods or services to a business customer in the Netherlands, the VAT is frequently reverse charged: you do not charge VAT, and you write on the invoice that VAT is reverse charged, together with your customer's VAT identification number. The customer then accounts for it.

Selling to Dutch consumers rather than businesses is a different situation, and so is holding stock in the Netherlands. Those cases usually do mean a Dutch registration.

Source: Business.gov.nl, VAT for non-resident businesses

Decide whether a fiscal representative acts for you

A foreign entrepreneur may appoint a fiscal representative, which the Tax Administration also calls a tax representative, to handle VAT matters on its behalf. When one is appointed, you are usually not obliged to register as a taxpayer yourself, and that representative's own tax office handles the work.

For one arrangement it is not a choice. The Tax Administration states that a representative is required to apply the reverse-charge mechanism on import. The representative has to be established in the Netherlands and has to provide financial security for the VAT. And the wording on the obligation is blunt: you always remain liable yourself for meeting your tax obligations, even when you engage a representative.

Source: Belastingdienst, Tax representative

Fill in the registration form for foreign companies

The form is called Registration form Foreign companies. It is one form for several taxes: VAT, the EU VAT One Stop Shop, corporation tax, payroll taxes, transfer tax and the dividend tax return. A company that will also employ people here ticks payroll taxes on the same form, which saves a second round.

The form is a PDF that opens in Adobe Reader 9.0 or higher. Fill it in on a computer, then print it.

Source: Belastingdienst, Registration form Foreign companies

Sign it and send it to Heerlen

The completed form is printed, signed and posted. The address the Tax Administration gives is Belastingdienst, Klantgegevens, Postbus 2892, 6401 DJ Heerlen, the Netherlands. There is no online alternative named on that page, so plan for post.

Foreign entrepreneurs are handled by the Tax Administration's department for international matters, unless a fiscal representative is involved, in which case that representative's office takes over.

Source: Belastingdienst, Registration form Foreign companies

Wait for the letter with the number

After registration the Tax Administration sends a letter with the relevant details. A separate request for a VAT number is not needed: it comes with this process when the company is liable for VAT.

A Dutch VAT identification number has a fixed shape. It is NL, then nine digits, then the letter B, then two more digits, as in NL123456789B01. That is the number that belongs on invoices and quotations, and it is the number a Dutch customer will ask for.

Sources:
Business.gov.nl, Registering with the Netherlands Tax Administration
Business.gov.nl, Request, display, and verify VAT numbers

File the returns on the foreign deadline

Dutch VAT returns are usually quarterly, and the Tax Administration tells each business which period applies to it. The deadline is not the same for everyone. The Tax Administration states that a foreign company returns the digital tax return within 2 months after the end of the period, while a company established in the Netherlands has 1 month. The return has to be filed even for a period with no Dutch activity and even when a refund is due.

The general Dutch VAT rate is 21%, with a reduced rate of 9% and a zero rate for some supplies, including goods supplied to entrepreneurs in other EU countries. A company that supplies goods within the EU also files an intra-Community transactions declaration each quarter.

Sources:
Belastingdienst, Filing a VAT return
Business.gov.nl, VAT (btw)

Keep an eye on the line into corporate income tax

VAT registration says nothing about corporate income tax. They are separate taxes with separate tests, and a company can be registered for one and not the other. The moment a foreign company starts operating here through a fixed place of business, a second question opens: whether it has a permanent establishment, which brings profit into Dutch corporate income tax as well. That question is answered in when a foreign company has a permanent establishment, and the route that avoids it altogether, a Dutch company of your own, is in how to set up a Dutch BV from abroad.

Borderline cases here are common and the consequences are not small, so this is a point where founders usually ask a Dutch tax adviser rather than decide alone.