Starting an eenmanszaak
Registering you can do yourself. Getting the first year right is the work.
A sole proprietorship needs no notary and no adviser: one appointment at the Chamber of Commerce and you are registered. What goes wrong comes after — the VAT, the receipts, the allowances and the return. That is where we start.
Torn between the two?
Fill in the quote request and say you do not know the legal form yet. You will get a proposal that sets both options side by side using your own figures, instead of a rule of thumb that fits somebody else.
This part is yours
And we charge nothing for it.
Two things you arrange without us. They are here because otherwise you would have to look them up somewhere else.
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Registering with the Chamber of Commerce
An appointment, an ID document and an hour of your time. No notary, no adviser, and we are not going to charge you for something you can arrange in a morning yourself.
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Choosing a trading name
Yours to pick, with one practical check first: if the name already exists in your line of work it causes trouble later. Search the trade register before you order business cards.
What we do
Everything that comes after registration
Your VAT number, and the questions that follow
After you register, the tax office writes to you, in Dutch, and usually with questions: what exactly you will be doing, what you expect to turn over, whether you supply customers abroad. Those answers decide how you are classified. We draft them with you.
Your bookkeeping from the first invoice
Your portal is ready before you start, your business account is connected, and you send invoices and receipts by photo, by email or on WhatsApp. Processed within two working days, so you know where you stand all year.
Your VAT return, every quarter
We prepare it, we file it, and you hear from us what you owe before the deadline rather than after it.
Your personal income tax return
For an eenmanszaak the ordinary annual return is part of your subscription, for you and your tax partner, on a subscription of at least twelve months. That is exactly the part most people dread.
The allowances that apply to you
Dutch rules provide reliefs for entrepreneurs, for people starting out and for investments, each with its own conditions. We look at which ones apply in your case and what you need to record for them — that last part often decides whether you benefit at all.
The point at which a BV becomes cheaper
There is a level of profit at which the BV works out better. We say so when you get close, instead of waiting until you ask.
These are examples of what we look at. What is sensible in your case depends on your own situation.
From experience
Where it most often goes wrong
Private and business money mixed
One account for everything is convenient in year one and a puzzle after that, one somebody unpicks at an hourly rate. A separate business account is the cheapest decision you can make.
Receipts that no longer exist
A till receipt fades and an email attachment gets lost. What you cannot evidence, you cannot deduct. Forwarding it at the moment itself takes ten seconds.
VAT that has already been spent
The VAT you charge was never yours. Anyone living off it for a quarter has a problem when the return comes. We tell you in time what needs to be there.
A fixed monthly fee from your first invoice
Including your VAT returns and your personal income tax return. Every line spelled out on the quote.
Questions we are asked often
- Do I need you in order to register?
- No. You register with the Chamber of Commerce yourself, in about an hour, with no notary involved. What we do starts after that: the VAT number, the bookkeeping, the returns and the choices that save you tax. If you get stuck during registration we will of course think along.
- I am a freelancer. Is that the same as an eenmanszaak?
- Not necessarily. Freelancing is a way of working; the eenmanszaak and the BV are legal forms. Many freelancers start with an eenmanszaak and move to a BV once they earn well. Which one fits depends on your profit and on what you intend to do with the business.
- I have just moved to the Netherlands. Does that change anything?
- Yes, in two ways. The year you move is filed differently from the years after it, and foreign income or assets count. Say in your quote request that you have moved here and we will take it into account.
- Can I keep working for clients in my old country?
- Usually yes, and it changes your VAT treatment rather than your right to do it. Invoicing a business abroad works differently from invoicing a Dutch one, and getting that wrong is one of the more common corrections we see. Tell us where your clients are and we will set it up right.
- Is advice part of the monthly fee?
- Yes. Every package includes a number of advice hours per year. Only special situations fall outside that, and those are quoted before we start, so you are never surprised by an invoice.
General information, not advice for your situation. We look at your case before we say anything about it.