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 earned by its own sof…
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 operating BV. This…
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, while employees ha…
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 still locked, the t…
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 check is already re…
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 suits you depends on wh…
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 notary is only involv…
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 already works. You g…
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 from one place. How…
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 in one member state…
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 the actual gains a…
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 companies that manage thei…
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 investors who know…
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, e-money, crypto, and in…
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 Netherlands, and the l…
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 between Utrecht, Bre…
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 rates. With the EU VA…
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 consumer's VAT and paid out…
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 organisations (CROs), l…
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 be filled inside th…
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 producer and hundr…
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 ventures, based on a…
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, there are test faci…
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 solve both. The re…
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, once. Then you can hi…
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 contractors, or you set…
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 for higher net pay…
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 new BV that still la…
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 question stays theoretical…
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 need a contract and a…
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 depends mostly on how you…
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 Dutch law, so the perso…
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 3, you pay tax on…
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 first large co…
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 model well, with EU…
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 collector, and a r…
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 excluding VAT. Consumers ex…
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 from personal bran…
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 a school. You can t…
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 and pipelines for hy…
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 border, you pay dutie…
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 tax on income from…
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 this. Under Dutch la…
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. Europe is therefore a l…
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. Successful edtech vendo…
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. The care sector ha…
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 measure usage, how y…
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 a link to a page w…
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 and seed investors jo…
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