What keeps running
- Annual accounts: prepared, adopted and filed on the normal calendar — a dormant balance sheet is short, the deadline identical.
- Corporate tax return: filed on invitation, also at zero activity.
- The registers: KVK, UBO and the shareholder register stay current.
- The address: the company stays reachable per the address requirements.
VAT and payroll registrations, by contrast, can switch off: deregister the VAT number at the end of taxed activity and close the payroll at the last employee — two letters that remove two filing rhythms.
Why companies keep a dormant BV
A name and history preserved, a licence parked, a vehicle ready for the next venture — reactivation is light, per reactivating a dormant BV. The yearly cost is the accounts and the discipline.
When ending it wins
A BV with an empty future dissolves cleanly: with zero assets and liabilities the turboliquidation route closes it in weeks — the steps in dissolving a Dutch BV. The comparison is simple arithmetic: years of dormant upkeep against one closing file.