All of it turns on whether a holding sits above your BV (besloten vennootschap, a Dutch private limited company).

Two ways to sell

  • Selling the assets: the channel, the brand, the catalogue and the contracts move to the buyer, and the proceeds land in the operating company. Corporate tax applies there.
  • Selling the shares: the buyer takes the company itself. When a holding owns those shares, the participation exemption applies from a 5% stake, and the proceeds arrive in the holding free of corporate tax.

The second route is the reason the holding exists. Absent that holding, the same sale passes through a personal charge on the way out, and the difference on a meaningful sale is measured in years of income.

What the buyer buys

Channels and brands are bought for what can be transferred: the audience relationship, the name, the catalogue, the licences, the contracts and the systems that keep them running. That is why the catalogue belongs in the company rather than in your own name — the mechanics are in your content library.

What to arrange early

  1. A holding above the operating company. Adding one later is possible through a share merger, and it usually carries a waiting period before a sale qualifies, which is exactly why early is cheaper.
  2. Trade name and trademark registered and owned by the structure rather than by you personally: stage name and legal name.
  3. Contracts with editors and agencies that leave the rights with the company, including raw footage.
  4. Clean books per income stream, so a buyer can verify the numbers quickly.

After the sale

The proceeds sit in the holding and keep working there, taxed only when you take money out personally. That timing is yours to choose, and the arithmetic sits in the money ladder. A multi-year lower customary salary agreed with the tax authority, combined with borrowing up to €500,000 from your own BV, saves roughly €18,000 to €20,000 a year in the growth phase.

A sale that stays hypothetical still repays the preparation: the same structure protects assets from operating risk and makes every ordinary year calmer. The whole design is in start here.