Knowledge Hub
Dutch Business & Tax Knowledge Base 2026
861 English guides on doing business in and from the Netherlands, written for international entrepreneurs and updated to the 2026 and 2027 figures. See how we verify this claim →
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Each guide is about one question that founders from abroad ask. Examples are what a Dutch company costs and how you register it from abroad. Other questions are about what you pay yourself, how dividend is taxed and when a holding is worth it. Start with the four main topics, or use the document check to see which papers your country requires.
BV Incorporation
Complete guide to setting up a Dutch BV: costs, timeline, notary and KVK registration.
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Holding Structures
How the Dutch structure with a holding and an operating company works, and how much tax you can save with it.
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BV vs. Sole Trader
When does a BV become more tax-efficient than a sole trader? Find the exact profit threshold.
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DGA Salary Calculator
Calculate your optimal director salary and dividend split for 2026. Live calculator with official tax rates.
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Entity Comparison
Compare all Dutch legal structures: sole trader, general partnership (VOF), BV and holding. Tax, liability and setup costs.
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FAQ
Answers to the most common questions about Dutch BV formation, corporate tax and doing business in the Netherlands.
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The complete English library has 861 guides on all areas of Dutch business, tax and legal structures, sorted by topic. If you are new, start with Doing Business in the Netherlands.
Tech & Digital
49 guides
The Dutch BV for SaaS Companies: Pricing, VAT and Growth
SaaS suits the Dutch tax system well. Recurring revenue meets the 19% bracket. One VAT registration bills 27 countries. Profit…
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The Startup Holding Structure: Founders, ESOP-Ready, Investor-Ready
Experienced Dutch founders set up the same structure at formation. Each founder has a personal holding, and the holdings own one…
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Employee Participation with a STAK: How Certificates Work
The Dutch answer to the option pool is the certification foundation (STAK). It has the pool’s shares and votes them as one block…
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Stock-Option Tax in the Netherlands 2026: When Tax Is Due
Dutch option tax has three main points. Granting an option is tax-free, and exercising it is taxed as wage. While the shares are…
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Series-A-Ready: The Cap Table and Articles Investors Expect
Series-A due diligence on a Dutch company is often short when the cap table is right. In the Netherlands, most of what investors…
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US Venture Capital Investing in a Dutch BV: Three Structures
US investors fund Dutch companies in three main ways: a direct round in the BV, a Delaware top company, or a flip. Which one…
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Convertibles and SAFEs in the Netherlands: How Notaries Handle Them
Dutch startups use the convertible more than any other early instrument. The investor pays on the basis of a contract, and the…
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The Dutch R&D Wage Credit (WBSO): Fund Your Developers
The WBSO is the most-used tech subsidy in the Netherlands. With it, you pay less payroll tax on the development hours your team…
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Build an AI Company in Europe: The Dutch Base and the EU AI Act
In Europe, an AI company finds its enterprise customers and its rules in the same market. With a Dutch base, you deal with both…
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Crypto Services Under EU Rules (MiCA): The Dutch Licence
With MiCA, the EU replaced twenty-seven national crypto regimes with one set of rules. A crypto-asset service provider licensed…
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Crypto Founders and Dutch Tax: Box 3, the BV and Timing
For Dutch tax, crypto wealth is either a private holding or business activity. Private holdings are taxed on a deemed return, and…
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Token Treasuries in a Dutch Structure: Custody, Accounting, Tax
A token treasury needs the same basics as any treasury: a written policy, proper custody controls and correct books. Web3…
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Amsterdam as a Web3 Hub: Talent, Capital and Regulation
Web3 teams looking for a European base often choose Amsterdam. The reasons are predictable rules, a real supply of engineers and…
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Fintech Licences in the Netherlands: The Map from PSD to EMI
Fintech rules depend on one question: which licence your model triggers. The Dutch licences match in one overview: payments…
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Become a Licensed Payment Institution in the Netherlands
You need a payment institution licence for acquiring, transfers, payout platforms and account services. You apply once in the…
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Game Studios in the Netherlands: Funding, Tax and Talent
The Dutch games industry is larger than the size of the country suggests. Studios with strong technical skills are based in and…
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VAT for Digital Products Across the EU: The OSS Return
If you sell digital products to European consumers, you charge each customer's local VAT. There are more than twenty different…
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App and Platform Income: Where It Is Taxed and How to Plan
You receive platform income after the store has processed it. The store has already taken its commission, dealt with the…
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Biotech in Leiden: Europe’s Life-Science Cluster
Leiden’s Bio Science Park has the full biotech value chain on one campus. There are labs, scale-up suites, contract research…
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Medtech Entering Europe: Certification and Your Dutch Entity
To sell a medical device in Europe, you need CE marking under the medical-device regulation (MDR). Certain legal roles must also…
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Semiconductor Suppliers in the Brainport Region: How to Join the Chain
The Brainport region around Eindhoven has the densest semiconductor equipment chain in Europe, built around one large lithography…
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Quantum Companies in Delft: The Cluster Advantage
Delft turned a university strength into a quantum cluster. The institute pipeline produces hardware, software and enabling-tech…
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Space Ventures Near Noordwijk: Europe’s Space Cluster
Noordwijk is home to the largest space-technology centre in Europe, the technical centre for European space activity. Around it…
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Robotics in Eindhoven: A Base for Hardware Companies
Robotics companies usually fail for two reasons: hiring, and how fast they can build and test new versions. In Eindhoven, you can…
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Hire International Developers: The Highly-Skilled-Migrant Scheme
The Dutch system for hiring tech talent from around the world has two steps. First, your company becomes a recognised sponsor…
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Remote Team or Dutch Entity: The Decision Framework
A growing team must at some point choose between two options. You keep hiring through employer-of-record (EOR) platforms and…
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Relocating Your CTO: The Expat Ruling, Permit and Family Plan
Senior technical hires decide on an offer together with their family. Offer them four things: a permit within weeks, a tax ruling…
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Founder Salary in a Dutch Startup: When a Lower Salary Is Allowed
In a Dutch startup, the law sets rules for the founder's salary. Under the customary-salary rule, there is a standard salary. A…
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Founder Vesting in a BV: How the Notarial Process Works
With founder vesting, you agree in advance what happens to the shares if a co-founder leaves early. Every team hopes this…
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Phantom Shares and SARs: Participation with Light Paperwork
With phantom shares and stock-appreciation rights (SARs), you pay people in cash at the exit as if they owned shares. You only…
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The Dutch BV for Agencies and Studios: Contracts and IP
Agencies and studios sell hours, and this work creates intellectual property (IP). Whether you can sell the business later…
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Fund Managers: A Personal Holding for Carried Interest
A fund manager earns income in three forms: salary, co-investment and carried interest. Each form is taxed differently under…
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Proprietary Trading Through a BV: The Professional Setup
If you trade your own capital at a professional level, trading through a BV is often better than private trading in box 3. In box…
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Data Residency in the EU: Why Customers Ask and How You Answer
EU customers ask where their data is stored and which country’s law applies to it. Purchasing teams usually ask this before the…
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Monetising Open Source from a Dutch BV
Open source companies sell everything except the code: hosting, enterprise features, support, certainty. A Dutch BV matches this…
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Running a Marketplace Platform: EU Rules and Your Dutch Entity
A marketplace platform falls under four sets of EU rules. It is an intermediary under the digital-services rules, sometimes a VAT…
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SaaS Pricing Across Borders: VAT on Quotes and Invoices
In SaaS pricing across borders, companies make more mistakes with VAT than with the price. Business buyers expect prices…
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Creators Scaling into Companies: From Personal Brand to BV Group
Past a certain number of followers, a creator is a business owner. At that point, a group of BVs is worth considering. The switch…
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From Digital Nomad to Dutch Founder: Settling in the Netherlands
Many digital nomads settle down when a large client wants a company as counterparty, a bank wants an address or the family needs…
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Green-Energy Tech in the Netherlands: Market, Funding and Entity
The Dutch energy system is going through a major transition. The grids are congested, large offshore wind farms are being built…
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Hardware Startups: CE Marking and Importing into the EU
To bring hardware into the EU, you need two things. The product needs a CE mark to show that it meets EU rules. At the customs…
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Selling Your SaaS: The Tax Benefit of a Holding at Exit
You can sell your SaaS company in two ways. If you sell the shares yourself, the whole gain is taxed at once in box 2 (the Dutch…
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IP Licensing from a Dutch BV: Royalties, Pricing and Contracts
With licensing, you earn revenue from your technology at a very low extra cost per customer. A Dutch company is a good base for…
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Cybersecurity Firms Serving the EU: Certifications and Entity
Under the NIS2 directive, thousands of organisations in the EU must run security programmes, and they have budgets for them…
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Edtech Entering Europe: Privacy, Procurement and Your Entity
European education is a large market, split over many countries and systems, and schools still work with a lot of paperwork…
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Healthtech and EU Privacy: Health Data and Your Dutch Company
Under EU privacy law, the strictest rules apply to health data. It is special-category data, which needs an explicit legal basis…
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API Businesses: Metering, Billing and EU Invoicing
API businesses charge for usage: calls, tokens or gigabytes. For correct billing and VAT, three parts need to be right: how you…
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Questions from Tech Founders, Answered
Tech founders usually ask the same questions, in about the same order. For the most common questions, you find a short answer and…
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Scale-Up Financing in the Netherlands: From Grants to Growth Equity
In the Netherlands, financing for scale-ups comes in stages. In the early stage, you use subsidies and tax credits. Then angel…
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The Dutch knowledge base at /kennisbank has 495 in-depth articles in Dutch on every aspect of Dutch business and tax law.