DAFT entrepreneurs
The financial side of your DAFT business, handled.
Your opening balance and the €4,500 investment, your Dutch bookkeeping and VAT, your migration-year tax return, and records that still make sense when you need them years later.
What we do not do
We are not an immigration firm and we are not US tax advisers. Your application goes through an immigration adviser, and your American filings stay with your own CPA.
Everything on the Dutch financial side is ours.
What DAFT asks of you, financially
The permit side is one profession. This is the other one: what has to be true in your accounts, and stay true.
The €4,500 has to be visible in your accounts
It is not enough to have transferred the money. It has to sit in your company, in a form that can be shown from your bookkeeping, and it has to stay traceable afterwards.
Your opening balance is the starting point of everything
It records what you put into the business and how. Every later statement, tax return and renewal file traces back to it, which is why it is worth getting right the first time.
Your first Dutch tax year is not a normal one
You arrive part way through a year, often with income from the United States in the same period. That combination is filed differently from an ordinary Dutch return.
Your bookkeeping has to hold up years later
Records you never think about again become the evidence behind a renewal or a financing request. Consistency over the years matters more than any single filing.
Where it matters most
Four decisions that follow you for years.
These are not filing details. They are choices made once, usually in your first months here, that shape every year after.
These are examples of topics we may review. Any advice depends on your individual circumstances.
-
How your opening balance is built
What counts as your investment, how it is recorded and what documentation sits behind it.
-
Whether to extend your first financial year
Starting mid-year gives you a choice about your first book year. It affects your first set of accounts and your first tax bill.
-
Double taxation and treaty relief
Income can be taxable in both countries. The treaty exists to prevent that, but only if both returns are filed consistently.
-
What your US LLC becomes here
An entity that is transparent in the United States is not automatically treated the same way in the Netherlands. That classification changes what you file.
Registrations
Who talks to the Dutch tax office
We do. Dutch tax letters are addressed to you, because that is how it works here. You photograph them in the app and we take it from there, so you never have to work out what a Dutch letter is asking of you.
Your VAT number
This is where a lot of foreign owners get stuck. The tax office comes back with questions, the letters arrive in Dutch, and until it is settled you cannot invoice the way you should. We take that up with them ourselves, in Dutch, and we stay on it until it is sorted.
Your payroll tax number
The moment you pay yourself a salary, your BV has to be registered as an employer. We request that registration for you and build the payroll around it, so your first payslip is not the thing that is waiting on paperwork.
The 30% ruling, if it applies to you
The ruling runs through payroll, which means it needs a Dutch employer. For most founders that is their own BV, with themselves on the payroll. It is not automatic for someone who moved here on their own initiative, so we check whether it is realistic before you build anything around it. If it is, we file it and run it in your payroll every month.
What we take care of
One team, one monthly fee, everything Dutch and financial in one place.
Get your personal quote- Opening balance, including the documentation behind your €4,500 investment
- Bookkeeping in English, in your own 100digital portal
- VAT registration, and the follow-up questions that usually come with it
- Your payroll tax number, requested and set up
- Quarterly VAT returns
- The 30% ruling filed and run through payroll, if you qualify
- Annual accounts and corporate tax for your BV
- Dutch income tax, including the M return for your migration year
- Payroll and director salary once you put yourself on the payroll
- Records kept renewal-ready, so a request never becomes a scramble
Straight answer
What changed since our early years
We grew quickly in the first DAFT wave and, for a while, we grew faster than our service did. Some clients waited too long for an answer. If you heard that about us, you did not hear something untrue.
What we changed: every client now has a named contact instead of a shared inbox. Deadlines are tracked by the system, not by whoever remembers them. You can see the status of your own filings without asking anyone. And we ask every client, twice a year, how it is actually going, in one click.
We would rather you read recent reviews than take our word for it. See what clients say now.
Immigration: we work with Cardon
For the DAFT application itself, the permit and everything around your residence, we work with Cardon. They handle immigration, we handle the money. If you are still at the application stage, start with them.
A price built around your situation
Your legal form, revenue, invoice volume, bank accounts and payroll determine your fixed monthly fee. Answer eleven questions and receive your personal quote within 15 minutes.
Questions we get a lot
- Is tax advice included in 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.
- Do you handle my IND application?
- No. Immigration is a separate profession and we do not practise it. We work alongside Cardon, who handle the DAFT and immigration side. We take care of everything financial: your opening balance, your bookkeeping, your VAT and your Dutch tax returns.
- Can you prepare my opening balance and the €4,500 evidence?
- Yes. It is one of the things we do most often. We build the opening balance, record the investment properly and make sure the supporting documentation is there and stays there.
- Can I get the 30% ruling?
- Possibly, and it is worth checking early. The ruling runs through payroll, so it needs a Dutch employer, which for most founders means their own BV with themselves on the payroll. It is not automatic for someone who moved here on their own initiative. We look at whether it is realistic in your case before you build anything around it, and if it is, we file it and run it in your payroll.
- The tax office is asking questions about my VAT registration. Can you take that over?
- Yes, and we would rather you hand it to us early than after three letters. Photograph the letter and send it over, and we take over: we answer them in Dutch and tell you in English what it was about.
- Do you file my US tax return as well?
- No. Your US filings stay with your own CPA or enrolled agent. We file everything Dutch, and we are used to working alongside an American adviser so both sides line up.
- I have already been here a year and my books are a mess. Can you take over?
- Usually yes. Catching up is priced separately because it depends on what is there, so we look at it first and tell you what it involves before we quote.
- Do I need to speak Dutch?
- No. Dutch letters land on your doormat, because the tax office writes to you and not to us. You photograph them, send them over, and get the meaning back in English. You never have to interpret one yourself.
- What does it cost?
- That depends on your legal form, your revenue, how many invoices you send and whether you have a dollar account or people on the payroll. Answer eleven questions and a personal quote arrives within 15 minutes.